The Adventure Continues…

In 2022 I wrote, “for the last year I have felt relatively stuck, and while I can’t simply find a new home each time I feel this way, it does feel good to be on the move again.”

Well, turns out I can just find a new home each time I feel that way, because after packing and unpacking, here I am. Somewhere new. It feels normal, until I think about it too much and then it feels weird to take a new route to work and it feels weird to cook in a new kitchen and it feels weird to have different neighbours. But overall, yes, the normalcy settled in quickly. Perhaps because I was unpacked by the first weekend here. Perhaps because I already knew it was coming, so was ready to move along when the call came.

I’ve had a longing to be settled somewhere since my early twenties. I’ve always been someone who’s most comfortable at home, someone who happily organises their space. I haven’t always had this much breathing room; I lived with roommates when high school finished and a housemate a few years after that. I did what I could with what God gave me and learned the art of contentment from everything else.

In a way it feels bittersweet to be moving again, because I did think that where I just moved from would be somewhere I stayed for as long as I wanted. At the same time, part of me knew that change was inevitable and my heart had already begun to pull away from that part of my life and was looking to the new.

Where I am now is not what I was expecting for myself. It isn’t something I was specifically searching for, but I trust that God has lead me to the right place. I have the opportunity to settle somewhere new whilst retaining some of the routines I’ve already built. Work remains the same and family remains the same, albeit with a slightly shorter drive. But there are opportunities for a new church, a new community, which I shouldn’t be surprised about. The move was the push to make a change; God knew what He was doing with this timing. Just as He always does.

Moving brings about the excitement of setting up new rhythms, too. I’m motivated to restock the freezer and pantry. I’m able to write in a new environment, and go for walks in a new neighbourhood. There’s a new house to clean, to organise. Already I’ve rediscovered my love of indoor plants and am looking after them more than I had been a few months ago.

I’ve unpacked everything, and spent a lovely hour on Sunday organising my kitchen cupboards. At first glance, the configuration looked difficult to manage, but I’ve set it up in a way that is both functional and pleasing to the eye. Of course, things are open to change in the next few months as I cook and learn what works best. The linen cupboard might also go through changes. But for now, it is neat and organised and it was enjoyable to get there. There is a particular joy that comes from packing all of your non-essentials into boxes, not seeing them or using them for a couple of weeks, and then unpacking them and setting them up. To relearn the joy of what we already have could solve a lot of over-consumption! Even just knowing what we have, and needing to put it all away (in a smaller home) shows the importance of how much we buy compared to what we actually need.

I’m looking forward to seeing what God does here. I think there should be an expectation that as God changes my physical environment, so too is He doing something in my heart. Of course I pray He always is, but in this space of settling in and reworking my priorities, I believe there is more going on under the surface, too. Whatever He reveals, may I be open to receiving.

Sarah xx