Happy last day of May, my friends! As we turn the page to June, I’m reminded of the giant shift in our lives two years ago. We packed up a lifetime in Houston and crammed it onto a moving truck headed for Franklin. I’m not quite ready to unpack my thoughts two years later, but I had to pop in and mark this day: the day we unpacked the last of our moving boxes!
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We can see the corner of our family room for the first time…thanks to my husband whose strong German roots kicked in. {Having an orderly task master in the house comes in handy sometimes!} Funny, with my love of beauty and interior design, you’d think I’d be the one who’d go crazy with the clutter, but the urge to unpack those last few boxes never kicked in for me. They became part of the scenery. Honestly, I stopped noticing them.
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The corner looks a little bare to me now. The same way it looks the day you remove the Christmas tree. You know that feeling…the one where you keep asking yourself, “What do I put in that empty space?” As I look at my family room sans boxes today, I feel a mix of relief and reflection. Who knows why I let them sit out in the open for so long instead of unpacking or hiding them in a closet? Maybe it was all a part of embracing the mess. Or maybe I wasn’t ready to let that last part of our beloved Houston home settle into our new Franklin home.
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If unpacking the last of your boxes two years later is a sign of settling in, then I’ll take it. But at the same time, I know there’s so much more settling to come. Unpacked boxes don’t settle the places in your heart that are still longing for deep connections and community. That only comes with time. And only God can unpack the places in our hearts that make room for our deep longings to be filled.
Here’s to a deeper kind of settling,
katie clooney - Linsey.. the room is the epitome of quiet elegance. Hope you found some great things in those boxes. Have a great weekend.
Bravehearted Beauty - Thank you, Katie. Quiet elegance. I like that. Found some old photo albums and favorite CDs in those boxes.
Cindy - Ahhh Linsey…I can so relate to this post. I still have some boxes that are just sitting…and you’re so right. It’s not the unpacking that helps us settle…it’s the moment when someone new reaches out and takes your hand and says, “I’m here for you.” It’s that moment that hits you in the heart. And of course there is the moment when I remember where I put something and I don’t have to search all over for it. 🙂
Rie - So weird that I just now emptied and moved a big rattan box of OLD family pictures that’s been sitting in my laundry room for years! What a relief.
Also enjoying running into Holly often and getting to know her 🙂
Bravehearted Beauty - Funny how things like that can become part of the scenery, and we can walk by for weeks, months or years without giving the clutter a second thought. Okay I think. But it does feel good to put it away! Glad you’ve gotten to meet my sister. I love her!
Abbie - I’m not certain how I came across your blog but I’m so glad I did! I’m a current Texan (native) but for the last two years or so, I’ve thought about relocating to the northeast (Boston area). I fell in love with that part of the country a few years ago, and I cannot take my mind off of the idea . I even go to bed thinking about it, and it’s almost like God planted that idea in my heart! Although I’ve lived all over Texas (on a ranch in deep south Texas, Dallas, Kingwood and now San Antonio), moving out of the state is so terrifying – and not having a support system there absolutely scares me. But I’m craving the seasons, although I’d be swapping out extreme summer heat for extreme winter cold. I hope I find the courage like you did to just make the move soon!
Bravehearted Beauty - Meant to be that you would land here. I hope some of my journey encourages you in yours. Change isn’t easy for me. Downright HARD to be honest. But it’s been good. God has grown and stretched and stripped and renewed me in more ways than I can count. Just keep surrendering your heart to Him, and as He speaks into it, trust and follow!
EC - I completely understand. I moved from the Midwest to the Northeast shore 5 years ago this month, by choice, for happy reasons, but I am still adjusting and I feel like an outsider and newcomer several times a week. I am still looking for close friends outside of my family and sometimes I’m lonely and sad about it. I just accidentally lost a few items that made the transition to here with me from the Midwest and I cried for days — it was a happy memory that I felt I needed to have with me here. Now I see this is one of God’s ways of helping me settle here. It feels like it takes forever, but God’s timing is perfect!
Bravehearted Beauty - Isn’t it great to know we aren’t alone…even though there are days we feel lonely? Lonely, but never alone. 🙂 I’ve learned to talk to the Lord more than ever before. It’s not just an occasional thing, but a daily thing. I consider that one of the greatest gifts of the move.