I envisioned walkways through the cottage garden, and trails winding through the surrounding forests.
I dreamed of gatherings galore in the newly renovated shop. I saw friends, family, and neighbors, people coming to visit us and staying for weeks at a time to relax and find new energy and inspiration for their lives. Not only would my kids raise chickens, have a dog, and be homeschooled, I was already 20 years down the road.
I could stand on the back porch and see my children marrying their beloveds beneath the trees.
Our picturesque life sprawled out before me like our expansive five acres. I thought we’d found a forever home in that log house.
Little did I know in just two years we would jump in a moving van and wave goodbye to the dream.
I guess you could say it’s been a pattern for us. Every 2 years we get the itch to switch things up, try something new, and change the scenery. We’ve physically moved nearly every 2 years since we married in 2009.
Now, I understand people might think we have some issues. We’re flakey, scared to commit, and to settle down.
But this hasn’t been my experience at all.
In fact, I think the constant moving has put us more in touch with the human experience.
Because whether we rent the U-haul or not, we’re all living in a state of transition.
Life, by its very nature, is fluid. Rarely are they visible movements though like traveling from one city to another or undergoing a radical overnight transformation.
Rather we’re all little earths with a unique arrangement of tectonic plates sliding around just beneath our surface.
Much of my daily work involves pointing out those shifting landscapes and opening people up to the beauty of their underground aliveness.
There are stories and stirrings waiting to be noticed inside each of us. Often these translate into dynamic and intentional outer changes, and sometimes they serve as a reminder of how normal it is to grow and evolve, to let ourselves be surprised by what opportunities come our way, or desires that bubble up from seemingly out of nowhere.
Dreams, the dreams, can evaporate into thin air.
We change our minds by the minute.
Our forever homes are not the final destination we thought they’d be.
Life is inviting us to stay…in motion, to root ourselves in the often ambiguous adventure of it all.
