wondering

So the postman beat me to the mailbox. I had letters to post but he was gone before ten( some 5 hours before his usual time!).  There was mail in the box. Notice I say mail not letters. Letters rarely make their way to my box.

Letters those missive detailing the joys, pains, hopes, and news of family were handwritten and brought the writer's voice to the reader. In past times letters were written to invite, congratulate and to comfort and mail was delivered several times a day to handle the flow in bigger cities. They connected family, bonded relationships and broke them too.They were a staple of life and checking attic boxes one often find stashes of letters between people covering years of the correspondents lives.

The telephone stopped many of the letters to and from people in the same city. The phone was good but a degree of intimacy was lost. Perhaps due to party lines. However email has created a new correspondence. It can and does maintain contact but much of it any more consists of advertisements and political sentiment. Too many emails are not personal and end up in the trash. This has affected the flow of relationships which email might have enhanced.

My grandmothers both sides lived far from me but their letters to me kept us close. I learned of their lives and the lives of my kinfolks near them. They learned of my schooldays, my small wins, and my first years as a teacher. What riches those letters held  and how they blessed me with wisdom and love.

Pencils were part of my life also. Those beautiful stamps lit up my life, and the letters detailed a life  I might otherwise not have known. My two longest were from Greece and England. Kathy and I still exchange letters after nearly fifty years. I have visited her several times and she has visited me. A simple hello my name is and I am ??? years old letter opened a new world.

So I miss the envelopes addressed by hand containing love, news and thoughts about life. Mail comes to my house. Advertisements, charities with hands out(some I support) political messages and bills  fill my box. I take them out and walk to the trash barrel and only the bills go in to my house. It makes for less clutter but also less connection.

Frankly I miss letters.

Ok I am heading to bed soon. It is not even 8PM but I am ready for quiet space and reading. This weekend has been busy and Saturday was really intense.

Two pre move items have been bugging me--- clearing out the basement, and one closet that was built in over the stairs. Sara came down to help and brought 4 of her five adult children and 15 children 10 and under, I can see the eyeball here, and believe me, I had my doubts.

However it went well. Better than well.IT IS DONE!!! Sara is coming down in a few weeks to gather items that they claimed but could not take back now. Sacks of clothes and boxes of books went to the salvation army. Still a bit more of those to go but I will get it done. Trash needs to be hauled but I can handle that.

So it was chaotic, busy and insane but it worked and I am exhausted, and like Pepys said " and so to bed"

Sunday

Dana is in London  watching the new Dr. Who  and I am jealous. Funny  with the jobs and such I could not join her and for three days the cost was way too high, still I envy her the ambience of the city, and the respite from the ordinary life. Travel can create a bubble in which you can put daily cares on the home front on hold. Yes they are there when you return but the relaxation gained during the bubble allows you to face them with a new perspective.

This will be an odd week here also. Tuesday is no school for me as I have  the annual mammogram and bone density tests. they have always been good in past so I am fairly sure the results will be the same. Then over the weekend there will a family incoming to help clear some spaces I need help with and to pick up some things( furniture and such) they might want. Busy time but I hope when they leave on Sunday or Monday what is left is manageable to finish before December the 14th.

Selecting  what to keep and what goes is not easy. I do this with each move but this time is harder for some reason. Memories are with each item and they reach out and grab me. Some are stronger and some less so. Still it is not easy. I am doing what must be done but it is hard. Life is what it is and I will survive.

More later--here's to becoming southern

Daughter 2 just called on her way to London for her job. comes home on Monday. would love to be with her but too much money for a short trip. We are opting for a longer trip within a year. life is changing. packing up more stuff this weekend. glad is a three day event

Georgia on my mind--becoming southern

So change is a given and any life is full of them. Some are forced on us and others we choose. I am about to make a big change and am doing to by my own choice.

I am moving to Georgia. Seems simple but it will be a big change.

First it will fulfill a bucket list item to live near the Atlantic ocean.I have always loved the grey toned waters of the Atlantic and hoped to live near it. However but it always way north of Georgia like one of the New England. Yet last Christmas I walked on a Georgia beach on Christmas day and made my decision.

But the move entails another major change--lifestyle. I am a product of the midwest and plains states. Born in Ohio and raised in Nebraska I have lived in South Dakota and Kansas the last few years. however i had a brief soon of years in Missouri and a year in Arkansas. So this Yankee is about to move south and become southern. This is ( and I am not joshing you) a major change in language and customs. A challenge but challenges can be invigorating. keep reading as i describe the process.