Today, I am proud to present fellow blogger Beth of
Far From Camelot. Beth is the mom of one adorable Riley Benjamin who she describes as her reason for getting up in the morning and her husband's reason for working so hard.
Beth has a knack for seeing the positive in even the most trying of times. Check out her new weekly link up,
Our Blessings Box, hosted every Monday where you can write about the good that's happened in your life and meet some new friends.
Moving Revelations
by Beth of Far From Camelot
I have had my life packed up in moving boxes for almost two years. Books, framed art, knick-knacks, kitchen supplies, you name it. My life has been trapped and unable to be used. Items have been replaced, although I had a perfectly good one already. It’s just in a box that I can’t get to. Two years is an eternity when you’re staring at empty walls in rooms of a house not of your choosing.
After being forced to close our business in Florida, Chris got a job in Georgia. The company was to pay for our move. They fired him the day before we were to leave and bring back our home. Apparently he was too inexperienced for the money they were paying him. Strange though, because he’d been doing the same work almost all his life. For three months we lived on a rented pull-out couch and RB slept smushed in his play pen. Even the TV was rented. It took three months to get another job, find a house in the city where the job was and afford to get our things from Florida.
The next house we chose to rent was out of sheer desperation to find a place quickly. It was affordable yet old and run down. It was out in the country so the area was quiet and it had a large back yard. That was its redeeming quality – RB had a place to run wild and free! But it didn’t feel like home and we relegated the majority of our things, still packed in boxes, to the spare bedroom. Thinking we would be leaving at the end of the lease, I didn’t want to unpack everything just to pack it back up again.
It’s easy to feel in limbo when things aren’t going your way. The year spent in Georgia was not productive for us. Our plans failed and people we trusted became a disappointment. I suppose when a life change is made beyond your control, your attitude is not a positive one. I felt we were stuck and stagnant. Our financial situation seemed to be getting worse. It was looking like we were going to stay a lot longer than we wanted to.
But moving to Bluffton has sparked some change and positive results. The majority of our life has now been unpacked. Family pictures and other art have been hung on the walls. Some of my tea pot collection is decorating the kitchen as well as the porcelain plates that my grandmothers painted. My books have come out of hiding and out on new bookshelves. The lies of our past cannot dictate the truth of our future. Tomorrow certainly is another day. Another day to wake up and be glad for a fresh start. Another day to learn from but not dwell on past mistakes. Do not settle.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that material things don’t matter and shouldn’t rule our life or self-worth. We did have to downsize to move into this apartment but what a blessing! You’ve heard the organizational saying, if you haven’t used it for a year, get rid of it? Well, I had two years worth of unused items to donate! It was a load off my past that was keeping me from moving forward. What a relief it is to start living again! I don’t miss those items. They don’t define me. Literally cleaning house was a release from a past that we thought we should hang on to. Now, I’m looking forward to acquiring new items to celebrate this next chapter in our lives, but don’t tell my husband!
