November 1st — An Anniversary, of Sorts, of a Very Strange Adventure!
It's raining like crazy this evening, and it also happens to be November 1st.
The significance of that — at least viewed from that strange place called "Human Memories" is that precisely 17 years ago I was moving into my first house here in western Washington after moving clear across the country from Texas.
And, of course, I was trying to move into my new place during what happened to become one of the wettest first weeks of November on record!
Nothing quite like carrying furniture and moving boxes across a sodden muddy lawn to you very clean new digs.
In fact, it got so bad that I decided to find a local lumber yard, have them split sheets of plywood lengthwise so we could lay them down as a non-muddy path to walk on, and wheel the furniture dolly on without creating a mud bath.
Completely On Faith...
I cam to this part of the world pretty much without a plan.
Some might make the argument that it was the most reckless thing I'd ever done with my life.
I moved 2,200 miles (about 3,500km, give or take) from a place where I had lived for about 25 years, to be in a smallish town where I knew nobody, had no family, had no job, and no living space lined up!
All I really had was "a sense that I needed to be here."
That's not much to go on...
Sure, I'd been to the general area on holiday a couple of times... and I had just never been able to shake the sensation that I "belonged here."
Maybe luck follows the foolish (or something like that) but somehow everything worked out and I even ended up creating a home business pretty much out of thin air... quite unexpected. Yeah, that was my beachcombing business... which still lives on, in a "diluted" sort of way.
Was it the right choice?
With 17 years of hindsight on my side, it definitely was! And it continues to be.
The Power of Place
Most of us try to guide our life with some sense of logic and reason. We're also offered up nuggets of wisdom like "bloom where you're planted," and suchlike.
I tried awfully hard to "bloom" during my years in the south, but it seemed more like one episode of misery led to the next, led to the next. Not only did I feel philosophically out of step with where I lived, I felt out of step with the land and the climate. It never felt like "home," no matter how much I tried to make it so.
Where I am now, the land feels natural, somehow and I just feel able to "sink into it."
Of course, I am also very aware that this would likely feel like a hellish soggy nightmare to many of the people I knew, back in Texas!
Hence "the Power of Place."
It's the idea that we resonate with our surroundings, in a way that can't readily be explained with science and logic. There's actually a book written about it!
Perhaps it has to do with where I was born. Denmark quite similar to this place, in certain ways... although quite different in others.
All I can say is that my very strange adventure turned out well! That said, I'm very grateful I am not trying to move into a house in this weather!
Thanks for reading, and have a great rest of your week!
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Created at 2023-11-01 23:30 PDT
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Well, I believe that you cannot live in one area forever so the change is needed
Do not let anyone tell you that you made a dumb decision
It was definitely the right move to make! I never regretted it for a single day.