Transition Piece

I don’t need to describe it all in detail. It’s too boring and I don’t want to relive it all quite yet. But we did make it to the airport, we got our mass of bags checked, our flights were smooth and the whole family got to Italy in one piece. All that happened in large part because of the love of so many wonderful people who care about us. We were fed, driven, fêted, kissed, hugged, hosted, well-wished and cried on until my heart couldn’t hold another drop. But actually it could hold more because since getting here we have been hugged, kissed, welcomed, advised, guided, invited, caffeinated, led through government paperwork and let in on a secret swimming spot.

I can’t start writing about all the fantastic Italian experiences I’m having until I back up a bit and talk about getting here. Somehow, by sheer force of will, we made it to our new home in Pieve di Teco 18 days ago. The last three months have been the busiest and most disorienting of my life. I knew it would be a lot, I knew I would be overwhelmed, but I was still somehow unprepared for the relentlessness of the intensity. The practical things that needed to be done were an exhausting respite from the emotional tumult going on inside me and all my closest relationships. I mourned leaving my sweet house while also researching credit cards with no foreign transaction fee. I tried to fit in meaningful visits with my friends in between trips to the Goodwill. The inability to put any of it off kept me powering through the last weeks (days! minutes!) of my time on Bainbridge Island.

It has been an idyllic landing in a lot of ways. Actually in all the ways, but by all I mean that we are doing the hard work that comes with big change. My family is a sensitive bunch. Just in the first week there were fevers and fights and irritation and allergies and swollen ankles and sulking. All the regular stuff. The difference from regular is that we have jumped headfirst into the personal transformations that are part of this geographic change. Each of us has our own journey right now and it is hard to get the space to do this kind of growth with four people in a two bedroom apartment. Everyone is all fired up, both literally and figuratively since we are in the middle of a July heat wave, in a tight space. The tension is a-brewin’.

I expect the adjustment period will go on for a good long while and will be filled with the glorious bigness of feelings. As we shift from one way of being a family and relating to the world around us to a new, uncharted way, my hope is that each of the four of us can find new strengths, new skills and new reserves. We are ever changing and everyone deserves the chance to try on a new version of themselves from time to time, as uncomfortable as that can be.

This is not a funny or touching post. It is really here just to be a transition from the before Italy time to the present. There is lots more to come about these early days, stay tuned.