Looking forward to reading more about your move! I'm in Perth - and planning to post stuff about Perth on my substack if you're interested. All the best on the move planning!
Beautifully written from your beautiful heart, Kathy. I can't begin to tell you how much I will miss you and your family. I'm about to cry right now at the thought of it but I am also excited for you all and this new adventure. I don't think you'll be sorry for making a new start in another beautiful place. The memories we all made together are precious to me and I know we'll see you again cuz we'll visit you in WA!
I recommend preparing a really good playlist for the drive! But it has to be downloaded because you won't have any internet most of the way!
I think preparing your heart with God is most important. You are well prepared in many ways and will enjoy all the parts where you are resting in peace and giving a voice to the excitement. It's good to give your heart a voice, any fears and concerns, talking them over with God. It will all feel unsettling at times but the prince of peace will still the storm ✌️
I love this! Particularly about the Anne's House of Dreams processing, that hits home for me.
As for having moved across the country and downsizing practically everything, I can say this on good authority; you really can't know what you'll miss and what you won't, so give yourself grace.
I brought a couple of boxes with keepsakes and treasured possessions and a suitcase containing my entire wardrobe save a change of clothes in my backpack, and my guitar in the boot. That was it. When we arrived at our new house, I immediately set out some familiar objects around my new bedroom. That's what I needed in that moment; something familiar. And it didn't matter if they were beautiful or valuable, it mattered that I had consistently looked at those things before we moved. One of the things was a rock. Another was a deodorant bottle. Another was perfume. and soap. And another was a very pretty little jewellery box in the shape of a duck that someone special gave me when I was a small child, and that was one of the less comforting things. It reminded me of the people I loved that I had left behind and it made my heart ache uncomfortably if I looked at it for too long. My point here is that you cannot predict what will end up being important for you when you're in a completely different place, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, because you have never been there before.
What I would recommend is to give God the responsibility of deciding what you keep and what you don’t ("lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your path.") and trust that he will provide all the comfort and counsel you need in your biggest, most exciting, and most unsettling seasons. Today I have much less care for things as I did, because it turned out to be God who sustained me through the wilderness, not my possessions. It’s through those identity compromising times that you learn there is no real stability in things; only him. I've been enriched as a person through the confusion and instability. I'm sure it won’t be quite as shaking of a time for you as it was for me, a teenage girl moving from a lifelong community in the hills of Tassie to the dry and friendless flatlands of Western Australia. You already know for sure you have a family of friends to embrace you from the start. Connection was what I missed the most from the get-go. So that is some 18yr old Molly-wisdom for you.
I'm excited for my own sake for when you get over here; the pizza nights, the long chats, the silliness and camaraderie. It will be splendid to have some dear kindred spirits among us again!
Thank you for your thoughtful essay-length reply Molly (I expect nothing less from you!). I love hearing about what God taught you about his care for you during your big move. I am also very excited to see you and the rest of the family again!
Looking forward to reading more about your move! I'm in Perth - and planning to post stuff about Perth on my substack if you're interested. All the best on the move planning!
Beautifully written from your beautiful heart, Kathy. I can't begin to tell you how much I will miss you and your family. I'm about to cry right now at the thought of it but I am also excited for you all and this new adventure. I don't think you'll be sorry for making a new start in another beautiful place. The memories we all made together are precious to me and I know we'll see you again cuz we'll visit you in WA!
I recommend preparing a really good playlist for the drive! But it has to be downloaded because you won't have any internet most of the way!
I think preparing your heart with God is most important. You are well prepared in many ways and will enjoy all the parts where you are resting in peace and giving a voice to the excitement. It's good to give your heart a voice, any fears and concerns, talking them over with God. It will all feel unsettling at times but the prince of peace will still the storm ✌️
Playlist is a good idea - we're thinking of some audiobooks too, and maybe the radio drama of The Chronicles of Narnia.
The heart stuff is definitely the hardest part. It's easy to feel overwhelmed especially now with time shrinking rapidly.
I love this! Particularly about the Anne's House of Dreams processing, that hits home for me.
As for having moved across the country and downsizing practically everything, I can say this on good authority; you really can't know what you'll miss and what you won't, so give yourself grace.
I brought a couple of boxes with keepsakes and treasured possessions and a suitcase containing my entire wardrobe save a change of clothes in my backpack, and my guitar in the boot. That was it. When we arrived at our new house, I immediately set out some familiar objects around my new bedroom. That's what I needed in that moment; something familiar. And it didn't matter if they were beautiful or valuable, it mattered that I had consistently looked at those things before we moved. One of the things was a rock. Another was a deodorant bottle. Another was perfume. and soap. And another was a very pretty little jewellery box in the shape of a duck that someone special gave me when I was a small child, and that was one of the less comforting things. It reminded me of the people I loved that I had left behind and it made my heart ache uncomfortably if I looked at it for too long. My point here is that you cannot predict what will end up being important for you when you're in a completely different place, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, because you have never been there before.
What I would recommend is to give God the responsibility of deciding what you keep and what you don’t ("lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your path.") and trust that he will provide all the comfort and counsel you need in your biggest, most exciting, and most unsettling seasons. Today I have much less care for things as I did, because it turned out to be God who sustained me through the wilderness, not my possessions. It’s through those identity compromising times that you learn there is no real stability in things; only him. I've been enriched as a person through the confusion and instability. I'm sure it won’t be quite as shaking of a time for you as it was for me, a teenage girl moving from a lifelong community in the hills of Tassie to the dry and friendless flatlands of Western Australia. You already know for sure you have a family of friends to embrace you from the start. Connection was what I missed the most from the get-go. So that is some 18yr old Molly-wisdom for you.
I'm excited for my own sake for when you get over here; the pizza nights, the long chats, the silliness and camaraderie. It will be splendid to have some dear kindred spirits among us again!
Thank you for your thoughtful essay-length reply Molly (I expect nothing less from you!). I love hearing about what God taught you about his care for you during your big move. I am also very excited to see you and the rest of the family again!