It’s my first weekend alone in the new house as Frank is back east helping Gillian move into her new dorm in Vermont. So I took the time to do some of the less fun things that needed attending to. As I was doing some paperwork today, I realized that it has been one month since the furniture arrived and we officially moved into the house.  People are still asking if we are unpacked or if we have settled in.  I say no to the first and yes to the second because they are not really the same question.

For the last month, we have worked to get the house and our lives sorted out.  In unpacking, we tried to see how to fit things from our old house into our new house.  It works for the most part, although there are still things that we don’t need now and we had to buy some new things that we do need.  That’s how I know we’re done catching up and ready to move on.  There are so many instances where I find myself objecting to something that is “wrong” when it is really just different.  They say old habits die hard but they do die.  At work I’ve stopped thinking about how things were done in my old job.  Truth be told, I think very little about my old job anymore; I’m so happy with the new one that there is no reason to look back.  I’m moving on.

Same in our personal lives.  We’ve attended a few churches locally, trying to see which one fits us.  The one closest to the house seems the most logical choice and we’ve enjoyed going but there are things that are just wrong  different than what we are used to so we decided to see what else there was.  Last week we went to a different church.  The ushers were in shorts; the priest sped through the service. It was very quick and casual – something I thought Frank would have appreciated.  But he was the first to say that it wasn’t just different, in this instance it was wrong – unfulfilling and uninspiring.  So now we have a measure that we can use:  instead of comparing things to what we know, we compare them to how we feel.  

So yesterday I decided to try the local yoga studio.  It’s a one room outfit that teaches a variety of styles with no set type it follows.  A far cry from the dedicated Baptiste studio that I used to attend – the one that now offers spinning and crossfit and lots of other options. It was wonderful and I loved it but “The Yoga Patch” is nothing like it.  The Saturday afternoon class was supposed to be “yoga for athletes” although the three of us that were there wouldn’t necessarily have called ourselves that. Kelly was subbing and wasn’t really sure what “yoga for athletes” was supposed to be so we did some flows and then spent half the class working on inversions.  I made progress on my classical headstand and handstand but didn’t have quite as much luck with the tripod headstand or forearm balance.  There were no warriors, no wheels, no core work.  It could have felt wrong but it’s time to move beyond that.

This morning I biked to the early service at our neighborhood church and noticed the differences but didn’t name them as wrong.  Mother Anne gave a great sermon on why people go to church – Frank would really have loved it – and then I biked home.  Different than what it was like before even though this church is no closer than the old one was to the old house. Then I walked to yoga – VERY different – and had Kelly as a sub again for power yoga.  This class was more in line with what I thought of as “normal” yoga and both the attendees from yesterday afternoon – Lauren the freshly-minted teacher and Christine who owns a boxing studio – were in attendance again this morning and the class was wonderful.  Different, yes but enjoyable nonetheless. 

And now to look for opportunities that may be different.  I’d like to find a book club here but understand it won’t be the same as previous experiences.  I’m looking into joining a local running club and checking out the alumnae chapter of my sorority – activities I had little time for before the move.  We wanted this to be a new adventure and the change of scenery alone isn’t enough.  It’s time to make a new life in the new place and stop trying to fit the old life in.  It’s not to say we don’t miss the people from the old life – we do every day.  Now we look forward to having friends new and old come see how well we are getting on with our moving on.