My list from this year.
This is one of the last photos of our family in front of our house in CT where we lived for the last 20+ years before moving to CA. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about all of the events of this past year and wanted to write them as a list.
- We packed our home where we had raised our children since birth. 2. Made 7 round trip flights to CA during the pandemic to move some of our stuff. We saw the airlines at their absolute lowest.
I remember taking videos of the departure screens and seeing 12 flights for the day, where there would normally have been 400. Everything at the airport was closed down, it was one of the eeriest feelings I can remember. 3. Drove cross-country twice within 2 months. Also very eerie to see how empty the major thoroughfare (I-80) across our country looked. There would be miles of empty roads each direction with no cars for what seemed like hours. It felt post-apocalyptic. 4. Moved the girls into their college houses even though they would never step foot on campus for the entire year. 5. Moved & downsized into where we are living now. This may have been one of the most incredible changes for me. While we’ve never been “stuff” people, it was a real awakening to see how much “stuff” we had accumulated. For example, we no longer have a linen closet with more bedding than we could ever use, we now have 1 set of sheets per bed. I could never have imagined how the simplicity of less could make me so much happier. 6. Added hiking, skiing, outdoor yoga and the outdoors into our lives. This has also been one of the highlights of moving here, everything seems to be based on appreciation of nature. When California went into a seemingly endless shelter in place and friends would call to see how we were, we felt basically unaffected, as most of our time was spent in nature. In a year’s time, I have grown a deep love of the outdoors.
As I’m reading this list, it doesn’t look like a lot, however Kirk reminds me of some of the things that we talked about & planned for years, like wanting to move to CA, and of course not being able to plan for a global pandemic. How fortunate we were in retrospect that Kirk didn’t fly for 6 months, or anyone for that matter, which made it easy for us to fly 7 times across the county and back in a basically empty plane. Because he didn’t work for 6 months, we were able to drive the girl’s car to CA. Other things were spur of the moment, like when Abby decided she didn’t want to live in the dorm 2 days before she was set to move in, and we ran around trying to find furniture for her room!
I am so proud of how we have been able to pivot this past year. Kirk and I share 1 car, which has in a small way, reduced our environmental footprint. I regularly walk to the market to buy just what I need for the two (and often times 1) of us. I laugh a lot more, I read a lot more, I am quiet a lot more. I have a part time job. I don’t weigh myself anymore, I don’t diet anymore. I am working on self-acceptance and self-love.
