Change, a new beginning.

Moving home is always an adventure: some love it, others hate it. Some consider it an opportunity, others a crisis. Some sense the future, others cling to the past. What is certain is that change should not be seen as something capable of arousing anger, attachment or grief. It should be seen as a way to rethink life, sort things, assess what is valued and should continue and what should be left behind.

As with all changes, moving house is very symbolic. This is not a simple transfer of objects from one place to another. This is about disheveling the whole house, making visible what was invisible, sticking your hands in your whole life, and trying to fit everything into boxes. It's stumbling across things that lead back to your childhood, to that person we love so much, and to that other person who seemed so important, but fell apart in time, it’s stumbling across your children’s clothing from when they were babies and fit into your arms ... This is to look back and see our life told in objects, in books, in random notes.

We tend to resist change, whatever it may be: we like - and need - our comfort zone our house tidied in a certain way, the objects laid with an almost definite order, people we take for granted by our side, gestures we repeat and transform into rituals to put the days in order.

But sometimes change comes. Sudden. Abrupt. Greedy. It imposes itself upon us, without giving room for us to adjust to it. There is never time to understand change. First we must accept it. The more we hate or resist change, the more it hurts us. It's as if it possessed a mechanism that is triggered when it encounters any resistance. Change seems to enjoy soft bodies - those that bend but do not break. To survive change we have to be soft. And perhaps that's what it shows us: when we think we're safe, restful, change appears to remind us that life is bigger, higher, and it asks for more, it wants us meek.

To change - home, marital status, employment and profession - is an act of courage. It's a new opportunity to avoid mistakes we already know, to improve ourselves, to start walking on other paths, to let go of what we do not want, to choose what really matters.

To pack boxes - real ones or symbolic ones - is a necessary step to move forward. Life gives us many new beginnings. This is not about forgetting the past or erasing mistakes. We are who we are precisely because we have a unique path made up of errors as well as accomplishments. But we can start over as many times as we want, and it's always another step to learning.

We fix the new home knowing where to hang the pictures we like the most. We seek the places where the light hits to put the plants. We reorganized the details, and crystal glasses are at hand to drink that wine with our loved ones. We tidy up our home the same way we arrange our life: we paint the walls with happy colors, we line our sofas with fine fabrics and our cabinets with tissue paper, we make impossible objects fit in tiny spaces, we leave a room empty for the things of the future. We are creative!

We come to places with a clean heart, after we’ve dumped the undesirable excesses. We come ready for other people, other moments of our lives. We have arrived!

Change is a new beginning!