Place

I haven't moved often in my life. The extent of my moving experience is dominated by memories of dormitories, which isn't quite the same thing. Throwing all of your clothes and a mini-fridge into the back of your mom's Geo Metro is a little different than the lengths one must go to move six of us, plus dog, cats and bird (and bird's rather enormous cage).

The worst part of this is the non-help of the children. I get a lot of advice about this, mostly consisting of "being tough" with them. Yes. Okay. But if I have to spend this entire time "being tough", I won't get my own work done and we'll be hovering somewhere near limbo. Not going anywhere. Getting nothing done. For the whole summer.

This is the reason summer camps exist.

So, I'm not an expert at this. I'm not sure anyone is, and I'm not sure any of us are supposed to be. We seem to be playing nomad in a culture that longs for place and community and somewhere to belong- and that is getting more and more difficult to find. I blame globalization and a race to the bottom, but that's a subject for another day.

Last weekend, Allan and I went to Mount Vernon to visit and see if we could find temporary housing while we wait for our house here to sell. We also began enrollment for our children in the schools there,  strolled the Chocolate Stroll, window shopped, made a few friends and had a very nice time. Without children. We missed them, but were glad of a few days of peace. While I write this, Josiah is busy having a meltdown because I asked him to sort laundry, Ben is probably sucking up any number of important things with the vacuum, and everyone is accusing everyone else of teasing them about having girlfriends.

Having a break at this point was a good thing.

When we drove into town last Thursday evening, we didn't go straight to the Sleep Inn, instead, we had a little drive around the town. Allan was pretty sure that I'd love it, and he was right. The biggest difference that you notice right off the bat is the lack of anything resembling Walmart. There is no gigantic, industrial smoke-belching factory hovering on the town limits, either. Nearly every business is local, with the exception of the handful of fast food joints and the Sleep Inn out on the highway. The very busy Lincoln Cafe in the main business district serves food sourced from mostly local farms. The Art Gallery on the other side features local artists. It is a different place from the common. In the words of the college president, "It is such a sweet place".

A few years back I read an interview with the author Jan Karon. She talked about how there were Mitfords out there still. I wanted to ask her to be more specific- as in, where exactly? Where are these Mitfords? Where are these towns where people greet each other on the street in the morning before going into the local grill and the local coffee shop? Where you live next door to people you talk to? Where the community tries to be one and succeeds.

I feel ready for this move. Which is saying something about the place, or for it. I think the thorn, as always for me, is to be okay with change. Be okay with the process of it all, the growth any sort of change always requires.