Best of luck on your move, Steve. It seems like the stars aligned for you (as a practicing Catholic I'll leave it at that). You are absolutely right that family is all that really matters. My wife and I moved out here to Phoenix back in 2004 with 5 kids. Most of them have moved to other places, but I have 2 here now and it's rumored that a third will be moving back here (with a new grandson!). My wife is buried here, so this is home now. Hopefully VA will bring you peace and stability. You certainly deserve it!
Sometimes, it is a comfort to read the writing of others...to get a focus on your own life (mess, at times). This year has been filled with the ups and downs, which are uncontrollable. We moved not as much as your family, but three states in ten years has been enough. I'm not sure the "home" we've chosen is perfect, but I cannot think of a place that was. All these changes require resilience that you think you don't have, but do. The best you can do is go forward with the best intent and see where you land. Prayers of strength, calm and clarity. Before you leave Phoenix...if you haven't visited, make time for the Heard Museum and poke around the Arizona Biltmore Hotel. We didn't stay there, but strolled through the hotel and gardens. Keep collecting material/writing. You have a book within you.
Yeah, that’s about as strong a sign as one can hope for in this smoggy life. Many prayers for you all as you pummel through packing. And now I know I have till towards the end of July to put something on the family coffee card for those cross-country stops.
Lots of movement, but that has been happening to a lot of people in the last few years since Covid.
I lived in NoVa for about 26 years before moving away in 2021, and although there are things about it that I do miss, overall I do not long to live there again -- perhaps that may change with age, we will see.
I wish you good luck in your move back to Virginia. You know the downsides and the upsides, so you will be able to manage re-integrating better than a newcomer would be able to adapt to life there, even if you will need to build a somewhat new social network. It's a dynamic place, and it ha a lot to offer, as you know, and I hope you find the kind of anchoring there that you've been looking for.
Thanks for sharing this update, Steve. I can absolutely relate to what you say about trying to find a home, and a place with opportunities for yourselves and your family. Although I haven't made as many moves as you and your family have, I have made a few big ones as an adult, and the majority have been international. I recently moved with my family to my third country, and I felt the same way that you do in Phoenix about my last location, which was my home for 16 years (and most of my adult life). It was as if the place was withdrawing from me, and I felt like I no longer belonged there. (I am using your terminology here, as you articulate it much better than I could.) I can also relate to being in a place but feeling like everything is a constant struggle. At a certain point, things just started coming together in a way that it became possible for us to leave. We're almost the same age - I think I am just a couple of years younger than you are, and I often think that I will never really settle down anywhere for good. It is somehow comforting to know that I am not alone. I am also a former Catholic (now Orthodox, although very humbled as a Christian and with a lot to learn) and the articles about the struggles that you have had in the past with the Catholic Church and are still having have helped me to make some sense about my own situation as well.
Write when you can Steve, and take care of the family and move first. I like the image of you and Jamie beginning volume two of your combined lives. I've used the same image for my own life and loved my second volume. I'm now in the final volume of my trilogy and am loving it even more. I hope you and Jamie find the same. You're in my prayers.
I moved away last year from a place I once loved deeply, sometimes things just run there course, as I was leaving I turned on the song If you could read my mind by Gordon Lightfoot, it hit me hard but it is a gift in life when you come to love a place
Steve, July 16, the date your wife and you first met, is the Feast Day of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Interesting. Are we talking a move to NE VA? You've probably told us this before, but assuming it's NE VA because you mentioned the Beltway. I'd like to say RE there is also horrendously expensive. I lived in McLean VA (across from Langley, where the CIA is located) from age 12 to age 20. We were renters, the house pre-dated the CW, sat on 14 acres, and I used to wander up to the CIA's perimeter fences and barbed wire, through the woods and stand there and stare. I wanted to work for the CIA. My brother had a temp job in the mailroom (in one of the summers).
NE VA is very prosperous, no matter what is happening to the rest of the country, because the taxpayer has its back. So you will probably find greater prosperity and job prospects there. And it seems your wife has connections, past success, you have family, you both have eldest daughter/SIL and grands there. What could go wrong? (I hear you thinking: "have you been reading?") Yes, I've been reading your past posts, I still vote yes.
NE VA is absolutely beautiful. So I vote "Yes," and "Good luck then." Moving is Hell, I know. In the end, one starts resorting to packing garbage just to be done with it. I am thinking of a song, I'm thinking of a poem. Ah, try this song. The poem will keep. And Bon Voyage. We will wait for you.
Best of luck on your move, Steve. It seems like the stars aligned for you (as a practicing Catholic I'll leave it at that). You are absolutely right that family is all that really matters. My wife and I moved out here to Phoenix back in 2004 with 5 kids. Most of them have moved to other places, but I have 2 here now and it's rumored that a third will be moving back here (with a new grandson!). My wife is buried here, so this is home now. Hopefully VA will bring you peace and stability. You certainly deserve it!
Sometimes, it is a comfort to read the writing of others...to get a focus on your own life (mess, at times). This year has been filled with the ups and downs, which are uncontrollable. We moved not as much as your family, but three states in ten years has been enough. I'm not sure the "home" we've chosen is perfect, but I cannot think of a place that was. All these changes require resilience that you think you don't have, but do. The best you can do is go forward with the best intent and see where you land. Prayers of strength, calm and clarity. Before you leave Phoenix...if you haven't visited, make time for the Heard Museum and poke around the Arizona Biltmore Hotel. We didn't stay there, but strolled through the hotel and gardens. Keep collecting material/writing. You have a book within you.
Yeah, that’s about as strong a sign as one can hope for in this smoggy life. Many prayers for you all as you pummel through packing. And now I know I have till towards the end of July to put something on the family coffee card for those cross-country stops.
Lots of movement, but that has been happening to a lot of people in the last few years since Covid.
I lived in NoVa for about 26 years before moving away in 2021, and although there are things about it that I do miss, overall I do not long to live there again -- perhaps that may change with age, we will see.
I wish you good luck in your move back to Virginia. You know the downsides and the upsides, so you will be able to manage re-integrating better than a newcomer would be able to adapt to life there, even if you will need to build a somewhat new social network. It's a dynamic place, and it ha a lot to offer, as you know, and I hope you find the kind of anchoring there that you've been looking for.
Thanks for sharing this update, Steve. I can absolutely relate to what you say about trying to find a home, and a place with opportunities for yourselves and your family. Although I haven't made as many moves as you and your family have, I have made a few big ones as an adult, and the majority have been international. I recently moved with my family to my third country, and I felt the same way that you do in Phoenix about my last location, which was my home for 16 years (and most of my adult life). It was as if the place was withdrawing from me, and I felt like I no longer belonged there. (I am using your terminology here, as you articulate it much better than I could.) I can also relate to being in a place but feeling like everything is a constant struggle. At a certain point, things just started coming together in a way that it became possible for us to leave. We're almost the same age - I think I am just a couple of years younger than you are, and I often think that I will never really settle down anywhere for good. It is somehow comforting to know that I am not alone. I am also a former Catholic (now Orthodox, although very humbled as a Christian and with a lot to learn) and the articles about the struggles that you have had in the past with the Catholic Church and are still having have helped me to make some sense about my own situation as well.
Write when you can Steve, and take care of the family and move first. I like the image of you and Jamie beginning volume two of your combined lives. I've used the same image for my own life and loved my second volume. I'm now in the final volume of my trilogy and am loving it even more. I hope you and Jamie find the same. You're in my prayers.
I moved away last year from a place I once loved deeply, sometimes things just run there course, as I was leaving I turned on the song If you could read my mind by Gordon Lightfoot, it hit me hard but it is a gift in life when you come to love a place
Steve, July 16, the date your wife and you first met, is the Feast Day of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Interesting. Are we talking a move to NE VA? You've probably told us this before, but assuming it's NE VA because you mentioned the Beltway. I'd like to say RE there is also horrendously expensive. I lived in McLean VA (across from Langley, where the CIA is located) from age 12 to age 20. We were renters, the house pre-dated the CW, sat on 14 acres, and I used to wander up to the CIA's perimeter fences and barbed wire, through the woods and stand there and stare. I wanted to work for the CIA. My brother had a temp job in the mailroom (in one of the summers).
NE VA is very prosperous, no matter what is happening to the rest of the country, because the taxpayer has its back. So you will probably find greater prosperity and job prospects there. And it seems your wife has connections, past success, you have family, you both have eldest daughter/SIL and grands there. What could go wrong? (I hear you thinking: "have you been reading?") Yes, I've been reading your past posts, I still vote yes.
NE VA is absolutely beautiful. So I vote "Yes," and "Good luck then." Moving is Hell, I know. In the end, one starts resorting to packing garbage just to be done with it. I am thinking of a song, I'm thinking of a poem. Ah, try this song. The poem will keep. And Bon Voyage. We will wait for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55xQu9eIPIA
Steve:
Have you thought about taking up Pascal's wager?
Prayers and best wishes to you and your family on your journey.