Moving Isn't Easy

When daughter Anna was in 6th grade, she wrote a fictional account of a young girl moving from Seattle to a small town on the Washington coast, entitled, "Moving Isn't Easy" [Copyright 1982, Anna Marie Blake]. The book was published by her school and I still enjoy reading it. The Dad is no better than a secondary character in the story, the father whose mid-life career change inflicts the traumatic move on the heroine and who responds to her concerns over adjusting to the new environment by telling her she should not feel sorry for herself because he's had to adjust to a new environment and also to a new job. The Dad in the book is not me though, because Anna explains in her author's note that the characters in the book are fictional. I do share in the book's dedication, to Anna's mother and me, "the world's best critics”.

I thought of Anna's book now because son Anthony and his wife Pat are moving from our home today, heading for Oregon, where he is starting a new job. Like the father in Anna's book, Anthony will be adjusting to both a new job and a new location. Pat made a huge adjustment when she left Thailand for the first time in her life, to come live in Seattle, so the move to Oregon will not seem that major to her.

As I was writing this post, Anna called to tell me she is going to the doctor today with her mother's parents. They are living in a retirement home and medical concerns for Grandma may necessitate a move to assisted living. An Aunt and Uncle are planning to sell their house and become renters, also for medical reasons. Moves made for medical reasons do not often offer great promise, while job relocations can hold the prospect for an improved lifestyle.

Hurricane Katrina is forcing lots of people to seek refuge and many have lost their homes and may choose to relocate rather than rebuild. Worldwide, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees continues what will probably be a never ending task. Immigrants face the trauma of adapting, but there are always those who thrive on the experience.

And here at home, my granddaughter is about to make that traumatic move we all begin life with, from floating in the uterus to being born.