A Zombie's Look at the Important Things

Yesterday marks one month since I moved to Portland from Seattle.  This is my childhood home, where both my husband and I were born and raised.

It has certainly been a full month with lots of transitions! Plenty of mental acrobatics have come about as my internal maps of the area have been accessed and modified from the shifting roads during our seven years away. And since it's taken my MEW several weeks to get transferred down here as well, we've been adjusting both to life apart at first and now to life together again.

Our kitties are settling in well and very much enjoying being on the first floor where they have the ability, (much to our dismay and, at times, amusement) to dart out the door onto the nearby grass as we arrive home with arms full from work. It's nice to have a washer and dryer in our unit - we only had this once in our 10 years of married life - and the cats are learning that these are not scary sounds. Our apartment is mostly unpacked, (although there are still a few boxes in the office/guest room yet to be opened) and we have given several crate fulls to Goodwill now that we have time to sort our stuff.

We are releasing the hoarding zombie-like tendency so prevalent in our society.

Our sickness is being released as we are taking time to consider what is necessary and what is extraneous material.

It's funny how being in one place we can accumulate all sorts of things without realizing that we are burying ourselves (and each other) alive.  We had considered purchasing a house, but I am very glad that we made this smaller move first.  It helped us to realize just how much stuff we have and how much we could live without.

As we have been adjusting to life in Oregon once more, we are beginning to reconnect with old friends.  I've had the pleasure this week to take walks with two of my dear friends from high school and to meet their youngest kiddos for the first time.  What a delight it is to reconnect after so many years away!

Yesterday, as I walked with one friend and her baby and four year-old through a nearby park, I was reminded of the preciousness of all life.  I am very careful with living creatures great and small, taking time to gently lift spiders out to more spacious living quarters when they come into our apartment and always trying to understand the reasons behind any wayward behavior of our kitties.  Yet even with my love of living beings, seeing the little creatures through the eyes and heart of a four year old is nothing short of transformative.

"The Important Things" - Photo by Trista Wynne

As this dear young girl picked up a fuzzy caterpillar, she not only treated it with respect, she treated it with love.  As it made its way up her arm, tickling as it inched along, she made several comments about the preciousness of this little creature.  "Oh, it loves me so!  And I love it so much, too!"

She danced with it.  She took time to consider what it might be looking at.  She sang to it.  And she told it all about the surroundings we were now passing as we meandered along the pathway.

I can only imagine that this is what our Beloved does for us each day.

We are so important to the Beloved Creator that She dances with us!  He sings to us!  She holds us gently and looks into our eyes, considering what we are looking at and why it's important to us.  We are His and He is ours.  She loves us so much more than we can ever imagine!

Dear ones, I pray that our eyes will clear from the cloudiness of stuff so we can see what's truly important in this world.  Stuff we can release.  Places we can let go.  But life and love, these are two things to be cherished more than anything.

May we have the eyes, ears, heart and gentle hands of this four year old girl who cradled and delighted in one of our Beloved's creatures!  May our zombie hoarding ways fall to the wayside as we remember who we are.  May we remember who and what is truly important.

Amen.