Trying to Get Unstuck

I am, in a big picture way, toward the end of the middle of a big move.

It’s been a long time since I made a big move like this, but this one has been protracted.

Back in the early and mid-nineties I made four moves over four consecutive summers, and each time there was so much to do.

Over those four summers I learned ways to move that were less painful than others, but I never really got good at it.

The truth of moving is this: you end up having to confront almost every mistake you have made since the last time you moved.

That five-year-old receipt to go with a purchase you immediately regretted but never got around to returning? It’s there in the pile of “things I have been meaning to go through before I die.”

That book you checked out from the library and misplaced? It’s in a drawer or under a sofa cushion or in a bag that you set aside and forgot. The good news is you can now go back to the library and clear your name. The bad news is you’re moving, so once the book is returned and your name is cleared, you’re not going back to that library anyway.

Pennies, paper clips, tacks, and rubber bands? It turns out they are all in the same drawer of things you don’t know what to do with. There may even be index cards with your child’s French vocabulary words…