An analogy

Moving (or, more accurately, watching my mom, aunt and cousin do the moving) loved ones out of a house containing years of memories is like a bad on again, off again break-up.

Stay with me. The analogy is brilliant. Really.

For the last couple of months every time I have been over to my grandparents' house it's the "last big family dinner" or the "last garage sale" and every time, as I drive away, I cry a little thinking of all of the things I'll never do again. I'll never see that special house again, never go down into the basement and remember playing school with my cousins or watch Papa work in his workshop. Never find my old hiding places outside, never swing on the hammock out back, never trip over the fake snake in Papa's garden or help pick the fresh vegetables. I will never sit around the tv shelling peas while watching Braves baseball with Mana. I will never sit around the dining room table again or watch Mana cook in her kitchen and see that old fan about swing off the ceiling. Never put my feet up near the fireplace, never sit on the porch and listen to the rain, never watch the birds in the bath or feeder, never sit on the milk box...then I do. Every trip back toyed with my emotions and left me sad.

It has certainly been an emotional couple of months for our family. I drove over there again this afternoon to get the last few things (noteworthy is the old sewing table that will be Anna-Kate's school desk when we begin homeschooling). As they will be closing on the house on Friday, this really was it. As I drove up the familiar street, past the old Methodist church and saw the houses that I've ridden past my whole life, I had both a sense of sadness and one of closure. I've spent far less time there than others in my family but it finally feels done, and I'm glad it's done. It's bittersweet, but, like a breakup, there is always sadness at a loss and difficulty accepting change, but the closure and finality that moving on lends are a good thing. I'm left with happy memories, and am so thankful!