I remember when I was 4 and we moved into this HUGE house. Harmony and Matthew and I made a fort/house out of appliance boxes in the garage, and we slept there on the first night in the new house...
I don't know if we actually slept out there or not, something tells me we just pretended to. But, I remember that about moving.
And I remember moving into the next house, the one on the river. I was eight. Harmony and Matthew convinced me I had the choice of any room in the house, and convinced me to pick the smallest room. I always loved that room, because I felt that it had been my choice. I could have picked ANY room in the house, but I picked that one!
And then when I was 10, we moved again... I don't remember the moving. But I remember when we found the house, and all I cared about was that it was a block from my best friend in the WHOLE WORLD! Jessica Henson! (Now, Jessica Polley.)
This weekend, I helped my parents move. Its been 14 years. And while I have some memories of those other houses, the one they just left was the one that built me. Made me think of Miranda Lamberts song. How is it that a place can do that to you? A home, walls, floor, ceiling ... how can it hold so much? It's love and memories and growth. It is a physical representation of life and who I am and why.
My parents new house is awesome, and I know it will begin to be more and more like home. The first night I stayed there, in the guest room, helping them unpack, I didn't sleep at all. I woke around 2 am, and went to the kitchen for water, looking at boxes and fuzzily thinking about the strange layout. The other house will always hold a place in my heart. This time, I will remember this move. The packing of boxes, and the unpacking of boxes. The letting go and the setting up. The tearing down, and the building up.
It is really a reminder to me about how this place is really just a temporary home, until we go home for eternity to be with our savior. And when we do, it will be so good.
I remember your house on the river, and that night we slept on the trampoline! Moving is a strange thing. I just moved to CA because that is where my fiance lives and it is so weird to go back home and visit my parents. I have so many memories in that house, but when I go back to visit, something just seems different. Maybe its the fact that I won't ever live there again. Sometimes I feel sad, but then I think about future and know I've made the right choice because I am happy :)
ReplyDeleteBTW... I love that Miranda Lambert song, actually I love all of her music but that song relates very well to this blog post :)
Hope everything is going good for you Heather!
(From Mama) Ah...I love this writing as well. My eyes are still teary from reading the other posts, that I can hardly comment! I am the one who would of been happy living in one house all of my life! Instead, this is the 15th home I have moved to in my life - 2 as a child, 2 as a single girl, 11 as a married woman. My houses have always become a part of me. Life happened there. Life WAS there. It was a home/haven for those I love best. My energies and passions went in to making each one a home for my family. Pictures were hung on the wall (and hardly ever changed!), meals prepared, noodles and parties were thrown, colds caught, lessons learned. The sounds are stored within those walls for all time - the laughter, the music, the singing, the alarm clocks/smoke alarms going off, the disagreements, the homegroup worship, the birthday singing, the grandchildren's laughter and tears, the microwave buzzer, the clock chimes, the sliding door sounds, the trampoline squeaking...and that annoying message machine! I have always so disliked moving- and this time I knew to do it as a sacrificial gift back to the Giver. I sensed 3 houses ago God's desire for me to not get too entangled emotionally in my houses - so as to be able to stay ready to embrace whatever plans He has for me! And, as you put it so well, to remember that these are just our "temporary" homes - that our eternal home - minus the disagreements, tears, clocks, and smoke alarms- awaits us.
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