Narnia, change, “stuff”, and home

Now, life has really begun in PA.  Joel is here with me, we are learning to call our condo “home,” I have not gotten lost once in the past week, and I am still on the same tank of gas that I bought 8 days ago (which means I have found my way without lots of u-turns and back tracks).

Joel’s adjustment to our move is a concern, so on Tuesday, I interrupted my manic approach to unpacking the houseful of stuff the movers brought on Sunday to take him to see the new Narnia movie, “Prince Caspian.”  Even Joel remembers me reading the Narnia books “a lot.”  In fact, what Joel wouldn’t remember is that the very first time I read those books aloud, it was to Dave.  The winter we worked at Keystone Ski Resort, I read the entire series to him as we drove from Lubbock to Austin (Christmas with my family), from Austin to Kansas (Christmas with his family), Kansas to Lubbock (pack up and move), then, Lubbock to Keystone (west of Denver).  I wonder what we did with all our stuff then?  Maybe I remember that we left it in the spare room at the farm?  We certainly didn’t have as much accumulated at that time as we do now! 

My five weeks of solitude and a relatively minimalistic approach to life did not prepare me well for the arrival of our belongings.  The movers just kept bringing and kept bringing.  The good news is that we have gotten rid of a lot.  The bad news is that we are still way over the “necessary” amount.  There are lots of boxes stacked in the dining room here that there is no place for until we remodel the kitchen.  I could live without it all.  There are boxes under our bed (you can buy bed lifters so you can store things you don’t need under it) that I wonder if we need.  I can’t for the life of me figure out how to set up the DVD player and speakers (maybe there is a young man at church who I can hire to do that for me?), but we really don’t need that at all, either.  It is really amazing what we don’t need that we cart around.

At the very first of Prince Caspian movie, Peter expresses the difficulty he has had adjusting back to life as a boy in England after being the High King (the Magnificent) and an adult in Narnia.  Later, after they have arrived back in Narnia, Susan tells Lucy that she isn’t all that thrilled to be there because she was just getting used to being a girl in England again.  Change is not hard.  It’s the adjustment to a new reality that is hard.  Learning to be joyful with an eternal perspective, no matter what the conditions of our surroundings, is a spiritual exercise.  I think I prefer the minimalist approach.  But, there are things in boxes here that will mean something to one of our kids one day.  Our lives are so connected through memories and shared experiences.  Those are pieces of the puzzle of God at work….not to be discarded too lightly, I think.

I have not found this change or the adjustment difficult.  Dave packed up our house on Woodland Glen after I moved to PA.  I just packed up my immediate needs and went away–sort of like a business trip.  I didn’t walk out of an empty house or deal with leaving Sheena behind or drive out on highway 74 one last time.  When Dave is finally here, I think we will share different experiences of leaving and adjusting to a new home.  When he was here to paint and oversee carpet, he said it felt like coming home…..he will be glad to get here in the fall.  I will be glad to have him here.

Joel, after walking to the Water Ice place last night (mango is his current favorite flavor) and into Doylestown’s quaint and friendly downtown, told me as we neared our condo that he thinks he can almost call our condo “home.”  He is going to be okay.  He is fully experiencing where he is and looking forward.