Mutterings on Moving

Moving and packing is usually seen as an unavoidable evil. It’s stressful, hectic, and just generally a real pain! Luckily I am an ‘ol pro when it comes to this. Growing up my family and I lived in over half a dozen countries. We have made a home in everything from small wooden sailboats to privately guarded houses. So we know how to pack. The up side: we know how to sort and toss with maximum speed and minimum emotional trauma. The down side: we at times get a little carried away with the intoxication of “tossing” that we sometimes leave behind precious fragments of our lives that we later wish we had.

We never had a “home base” like many ex-pats, where we could store stuff for when we eventually “came home.” We literally had to create a new world and home where ever we went with whatever we had. Poor parents, some of the things they had to ship around the world just to keep their little girls happy is, looking back, poignantly funny and sweet. For example, I have this giant teddy bear I got when I was about three or four that must have been as large as I was. It ended up wearing my old shorts and sweater. Well, this bear, which takes up its’ own large box has probably circled the world twice and has enough air mileage for a family vacation! Not until I was living on my own and having to figure out a way to pay for stuff did it dawn on me how expensive that stuffy 20 year old bear has become!! (by the way I still have it, though last year I had to finally store it…how could I get rid of it now??)

On a more absurd note, there is probably a growing gang of Argentine stray cats in Rural south Alabama by now thanks to two girls with tearful eyes whispering “~plea~~se Daddy!”

Basically the trick is stuff is replaceable, memories aren’t. get rid of the stuff and hang on to the irreplaceables, whether it be photo albums or a giant mangy looking teddy bear.

'ol bear getting his head sewn back on