Embracing Change

Sometimes, you find lessons in the strangest of places. As of late, I have been learning how to embrace change in my life. We all know change happens, but some people deal with it better than others.

I like to fancy myself as someone who "rolls with the punches." However, the past couple of weeks have thrown me for a bit of a loop.

Let me explain.

Since my father's death in 2011, My wife and I have grown closer to my mom. We spend a lot of time together and as a result, have decided that we should sell our individual homes and build something for all of us.

I am all for this idea. It provides many, many positives for our family.

But... (you knew this was coming).

Combining two households means there are a lot of things in each that are unnecessary. You don't need two sets of this, and two sets of that. So one set has to be sold, donated or otherwise discarded.

My wife refers to this as "decluttering." Not only do we have to declutter for the move, we need to declutter  in order to put the current homes on the market while we build the new house.

Yay! We are cleaning up.

Wait a minute. How "decluttered" are we getting? Very.

Furniture has be moved or removed from our home. Boxes and totes fill our garage, to be moved to some form of storage soon. The mantra "If we haven't used it in a year, we don't need it" rings out each night when I get home.

Staging a home for sale means the removal of identifying personal items. For example, family photos have to be removed. Potential buyers want to be able to picture their family in the home, not be reminded your family lives here.

That is that part that unnerved me a bit. I walked in the house this weekend to see blank (or decorated) walls where our family photos used to be. I was unsettled for a moment.

In that instant,  I realized our home for the past six years would soon be someone else's. My mind played the memories of good times we had, and maybe a few of the challenging times. Life is full of both.

Then I was reminded by my wife about the new memories we would be making, and the new "family wall" we would create in the new house.

Here comes the lesson.

Change can be an unsettling experience. However, it doesn't mean you have to forget the old in order to embrace change. It just means you bring a few of those memories along while you make new ones.

Lesson learned.

Until Next Time...