Remaking our Selves

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We moved my mom this weekend. (Is my husband not a saint?) It was only from one apartment to another within the same building, and there was an elevator.  But, man oh man, was I tired.  I worked about 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days, give or take.  I’m not nearly as sore today, though, as I expected to be.

Mom is happy with her new surroundings.  She moved from the third floor to the first floor.  There’s more traffic noise, and it’s in a north/shaded part of the building, but she has a bigger bathroom and hallway and nicer floor coverings.  She’s excited for the change.

Got me thinking about how moves allow us to reframe our lives.  We get in ruts, doing things the same way, feeling like everything is same-old same-old.  Most humans, I think, like a little variety.  It helps you appreciate what you have and enlivens you.

And a move.  It allows you to rethink your whole life, even if not much really has changed.  You step outside yourself and think, I like this, I think I’ll keep it, or I don’t like this, I think I’ll change it.

It would be great if we had regular times in our lives that we could do this on a regular basis ~ say the third Thursday of every month.  A time to step back and say, you know what? This isn’t working, let’s redo this.  Call it a Redo Remake Holiday or something.

I imagine there are people who do do this, who aren’t as much security freaks as my husband and I.  Some people make it a point of moving every two or three years or going on lots of vacations.  They seem to want to deliberately disrupt all the community they’ve built and start things new, but then they might also be the type of people who are able to hold onto that old community or come back to it. (Or maybe they don’t want that old community.)

And as I think about it, it allows you not just to reimagine your life but yourself within your life.  It’s like when you go away to college.  A lot of people change their names and adopt slightly ~ or not so slightly ~ new identities.  They separate who they were from who they want to become, and this break from family is a the perfect opportunity.

It’s hard to do because the whole world generally doesn’t want you to change (if they are attached enough to care).  They know who you are and what to expect and that’s what they want from you.

As I said, wouldn’t it be great to have a time that we all try out new selves and new places in the world?  Halloween once a month!