Knowing my resistance to change, the Universe usually gives me ample time to get used to the idea, especially when there’s a big one coming my way. It begins with a subtle shifting as that which is no longer serving my highest good quietly fades like a waning moon, while new rays of promise start to peek out just above the horizon.
Sometime last year, I began longing to “travel light,” which was odd because I’d never longed to travel at all. I’ve always been “The Reluctant Traveler,” both literarily and figuratively. Keeping change at bay made me feel like I was in control and, as a child of an alcoholic, for most of my life nothing had been more important.
When a growing urge to purge began earlier this year, I didn’t know what it meant, but I followed its direction and filled a dumpster with years of crap that I soon realized had been cluttering my life, weighing me down and holding me back.
For the last 17 years I’ve rented a house on a lovely farm. With three bedrooms and two baths all to myself, it’s the largest place I’d ever lived in and the most expensive. But at the time I moved here, I was a successful TV writer, I could afford it, and so I indulged myself in the luxury of having a separate office, as well as a guest room for family and friends. It has been my little patch of paradise all these years and I’ve often said they’d have to carry my cold carcass out the door or call the SWAT team because I was never leaving.
If there’s one thing guaranteed to make the Universe laugh it’s the word “never.”
Change happens whether we resist it or not. In recent years, staying in this home has become a financial struggle, increasing until it started to dim the joy I’ve felt here and finally threatening to extinguish it altogether. I always thought I’d be devastated if I ever had to leave, but instead I find myself surprisingly prepared and at peace about it.
In September, I’ll be moving to a friend’s much more affordable, one-room guest house. Yes, that would be one room, not one bedroom. It’s a cozy, round cottage high atop a hill with unobstructed views of the entire valley – very private and peaceful – a little temple in the trees.
Whenever I’ve sought out spiritual guidance, prefacing my request with “for the highest good of all,” the Universe has not only come through with what I was seeking, but with something even better.
So I’m choosing to let go of any fear of change and instead stepping through the door to this next chapter of my life with faith, joy, and trust.
There are so many wonderful people that I’ve come to know through the writing of this blog, people I would love to meet “in real life.” With this move, I’m beginning to my shed my resistance to travel and open myself up to those opportunities that would not have been financially possible before.
I guess you could say I’m limiting my living space, but expanding my world.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
