Living Into New Life in a New Place

My husband and I bought land in the mountains of western North Carolina when our sons were nine and 12, with the idea that we’d move from Ohio when they’d grown.

And we did.

But before we left northeast Ohio, in the years of high school graduations and traveling to the mountains to choose faucets and tile, I fill pages in my morning journal.  I’m trying to come to terms with the big changes ahead, of pulling up deep roots – my church home, friends, and the writing community I’ve participated in for years–of starting life over as an empty nester in a totally new place.  Transition plus.

A few months before we move, I join the journaling class I’d joined annually for a number of years at The Pink Pig, part of Case Western Reserve University’s Summer in the Country slate of classes in Gates Mills, Ohio.  Always, it was a treasured place to join kindred souls who enjoyed journaling, as well as sharing deep thoughts ripe with wisdom.

Class creator and facilitator Jenny Clark chose a theme each year.  One year…Friendship.  Another year..Raiment of Meaning.  The year I am moving with my husband to the mountains to step into new lives the theme….Letters to the Future.  Synchronicity.  Jenny definitely didn’t have me in mind when she began working on the class the preceding winter.

Catharsis is an understatement to name the process I go through journaling to her prompts those spring days of 2007.  Writing letters to the future brings me to tears, to insights, and in the end, to a place of deep knowing and trust that God will provide all I need to live with delight and joy into my new life on a mountain in North Carolina.  I also receive a knowing that my healing has stalled in Ohio, and that new layers of healing will enter once we’ve moved.

Another major understatement!

As life has unfolded, our marriage ended a year after we’d moved, and incredible souls have come into my life to offer deep healing of mind, body, and spirit.  I’ve been led to become a spiritual director/companion and to become a Hospice volunteer, and I’m evolving into new aspects of myself so much these days, and into the life I’ve always been meant to live.

I’m grateful for the journey, and that my ex, as well as our grown sons are thriving into their new lives.  We’ve gone through the divorce and days beyond with pretty much kindness,  forgiveness, and mindfulness to help soften the road.

What transition are you about to live into?  Can you come to a place of deep trust that everything will work out in the best possible way?  Is it time to honor your own deep wisdom to guide you forward?