I Just Moved!

Fun fact: I have moved at least 14 times between 1986 and 2014. Except for a cross-country move to California and back in the mid 90s, most of those moves were relatively easy compared to what I just went through a couple of weeks ago.

The backstory is that my husband and I decided to build a new house, and even though it won't be ready to move into until 2025, our realtor advised us back in May to put our house up for sale right away because the market was hot. Also, in case you haven't noticed, it's an election year and she stressed that the closer we get to election time, potential buyers tend to stay where they are and put their moving plans on hold.

Thankfully, our house sold in less than one week back in mid-May, the closing was set for July 31st and we began the arduous task of packing. Our plan was to put most things into storage until the new house was ready and only move essentials to an available one bedroom apartment we already owned.

If there is an easy part to moving, it's identifying those items you love yet do not need immediately that can readily be placed into moving boxes and saved for next year when you will once again have room for said items. The hard part is realizing that you have accumulated way too much stuff over your entire life and you must trash, donate or somehow find a good reason to keep these other things, most of which you've forgotten about and didn't know you had until you discovered that you still had them.

Some days, I was Pluto incarnate...digging deep, unearthing relics from my past and releasing them to the ethers. Other days, my cup runneth over with abundance of still usable items (mostly clothing and books) and my generous inner Jupiter joyously gave it all away. But then, as the remaining items to be considered revealed themselves, my weary soul surrendered and I couldn't bear to part with one more thing.

And that is how I famously (read: foolishly) thought I easily downsized (albeit temporarily) from a large 3-bedroom house with an equally large basement to a tiny one bedroom apartment with limited storage space and 21 steps straight up to the front door.

While we had professional movers store our furniture and numerous boxes we had packed, a feat that required four able-bodied young men to efficiently stack like Jenga blocks in the moving van, my husband and I moved the rest of our stuff to the apartment ourselves. What were we thinking?!?! We are not 30 years old anymore!

What I thought would be mostly clothing, a few kitchen items, towels and bedding turned into large plastic bins of shoes (mostly mine and rarely worn), a heavy Staub Dutch oven (rarely used), four skillets, 3 hair dryers and an abundance of Pyrex storage containers (we cook a lot). But wait, there's more!

It took us five days to get everything out of the house and moved to the apartment. Fortunately, our buyers are the kindest young couple and gave us the grace of continuing to move out even a few days after the closing.

So here we are 2 weeks out from the move and I'm finally feeling settled. Many things need to be put away yet, but I'll wait for my Venus in Virgo to kick in before attempting any further organization. She (my natal Venus) took charge of the kitchen cabinets and all but alphabetized the spice rack. I can't wait to see what she does with my make-up and hair products.

A Heart to Art Experience

I recently had an art-making session with artist, Carole Silverstein. Interestingly, this was a one-on-one class via Zoom not in-person as I've taken so many art classes in the past. We emailed each other a few times in the weeks leading up to our session so I did get an opportunity to become a bit more comfortable with the idea of me here in Pennsylvania with my limited stash of art supplies and lack of consistent art-making and Carole in southern California, a professional artist with an exceptional catalogue of work that has been exhibited all over the world. Let's say I was a bit intimidated going into this.

But once we were talking to each other at the beginning of the session, my guard dropped immediately as I found Carole to be warm and engaging and ultimately, a superb instructor. A couple of weeks prior, I had selected The Thread as the archetype that I wanted to work with during our time together. I chose The Thread because it represents a path, a vein, a way of connecting point A to point B. I've had a lifelong struggle with knowing if I'm on the right path or not.

The first activity we did before diving into our art supplies was a 5 minute timed writing with the prompt: The last time I can remember being fully alive. This prompt was not easy for me, but after a few breaths, I wrote about how I feel every time I am in northern California. I have a great sense of well-being whenever I'm there. After sharing my piece of writing with Carole, she noted that "place" is very important to me. I absolutely know this is true for me, but how wonderful it felt to be seen by someone I didn't really know. Don't you love it when somebody else "gets you?"

Next, she had me take a piece of paper and cover it with color. This was a timed exercise as well. I could use pens, markers, whatever to fill the page with color. I had some colored pens within reach so I just scribbled all over the page like a mad woman. It felt really good to just go wild with no goal in mind except covering the paper with color. This was very liberating for me, the person who otherwise wants to make sure that she is doing the exercise the right way. My natal Venus in Virgo who strives for perfection didn't know what hit her. LOL

Finally, it was time to make some art using the chosen archetype, The Thread. Ahead of time, I had brought out some colored pencils, pens, markers and pastels as well as my sewing supplies including needle and thread. After Carole read a soulful description of this archetype, we each set off on creating some art based on The Thread. She had some great music playing in the background and she checked in on me every 5 minutes or so. When I got stuck, Carole said simply, "do something different on the page." So after working with the markers and not liking what was happening, I followed her suggestion and grabbed my needle and thread. And when that didn't go as I'd hoped, I started using soft pastels until the timer went off.

Here is a closeup of my art piece. I started by drawing a heart in the center of the page and then wrote a poem around the heart. I will type out the poem below so you don't have to keep turning your screen around to read it. LOL

This is my path to wherever I need to go even if I don't know where I'm going.

Just following my heart, my heart knows the way.

Way out or way in, Love is the thread that keeps me tethered to this life.

My life!

There is no one way. There is only one way I know though,

My way.

If I follow my path I will always find my way because the heart knows everything.

Whenever you feel lost, find your way back home to your heart just by pulling on this thread. Just a little tug and you'll be on your way back home to your heart.

The remainder of the page shows hearts of every color with squiggly lines connecting them to each other. I titled my work We Find Love Wherever We Go. Here is a photo of the completed project.

It was pure joy to wake up my long dormant creativity. I look forward to doing another session with Carole incorporating a different archetype. In the meantime, I'm giving myself 30 minutes of uninterrupted creative time each week hoping that it will eventually become a daily practice.

A Poem for the Eclipse

On Saturday I participated in a poetry reading at a local public library and presented this new poem for the first time. While I didn't write this poem particularly about today's total solar eclipse, I do believe its message insists that even during times of darkness, the angel of hope lingers and brings the promise of brighter days.

As the Aries New Moon dares to step in front of the Aries Sun today, we can go within and prepare to step forth into the light once again.