Dante and I are back on the road for another grand adventure into the wilds of the Northwest...but this time, as we (well, or at least I) have dreamed in the past, it will be to stay.
As someone who has never considered themselves to be the kind to "settle down", it was unusual if I could even stay in the same apartment for more than a year, I've been surprised by how difficult this departure has been. I am a person who adores change, it's part of my profession and it's certainly a part of my life, so acknowledging that this change is affecting me in new and unfamiliar ways is disconcerting in and of itself. Apparently, while I wasn't paying attention, I grew roots in California. And, just as anyone who has ever tried to move established plants from one garden to another understands, the displacing of a root system is a very complex process through which you must be delicately forceful and patient. I possess one of those characteristics and I'll let you guess at which it is...
In the beginning I just started pulling at the plant, stubbornly insisting that it just release it's grip on the earth and come along. Then I pretended that I didn't need the roots, that I would just hack it off at the base at the last minute and be done with it. When the hacking proved too painful I realized that maybe my way, the rapid upheaval to the marching beat and a rally cry of "forward ho!", may not be the best way to begin this little journey and that maybe this time, something besides geography needed to change... So I started an adventure, within the adventure, to seek out a way to be gentler to my rooted self and to coax instead of yank when sadness, excitement, fear, nervousness, hopefulness and doubt appear, and often all at the same time.
And who knows, now that I know it's possible, the roots that is, maybe I'll find some Miracle Grow in Seattle...
I've got this quote floating in my mind as food for thought on the long drive, I'll leave it with you as well:
It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power. - Alan Cohen
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