“An Offering” (image I made from the side yard of my home ). |
The familiar is soothing. The known comforts.
I have lived in my new place since Halloween. It’s unsettling how unfamiliar it remains. I can count on a hand the number of times I have gone downstairs to the basement. I have yet to even see the attic. It all feels temporary.
A home is a way of being in the world that is tied to the familiar. David Whyte (2015) writes that “taking a new step always leads to a kind of radical internal simplification, where, suddenly, very large parts of us, parts of us we have kept gainfully employed for years, parts of us still rehearsing the old complicated story, are suddenly out of a job.”
Oddly, the David Whyte quote resonates with me in terms of retirement. Saturdays and Sundays are still different from the rest of the week. Leaving a familiar home may be much the same—until one makes new memories in the new place, the old ones keep coming...
ReplyDelete"until one makes new memories in the new place, the old ones keep coming..." Exactly.
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