I’m sitting for the last time at the island that floats between the kitchen and the living room in this Uptown Minneapolis apartment into which I moved eleven months ago. I leave tomorrow morning for my new home in the Northeast. My furniture and boxes left last Wednesday, so I’ve spent close to a week in a very empty and echoey space, doing last minute tasks and errands. It was weird, to say the least. I just finished cleaning out the refrigerator.

This will be a very different kind of cross country trip from last year’s. For one thing, I’m not doing this one alone. My friend Amy is journeying with me, which I’m very happy about. Last year, it felt important to make the trip by myself into those vast empty spaces that lie between the Pacific Northwest and this piece of the Midwest. I don’t think there’s a lot of vast emptiness between here and Upstate New York, and it will be good to have company as I go deeper into the density.

So, tomorrow morning, my life will change. The transition from one location to another will happen over a number of days, but the one from solitude to company starts then and it feels as radical as the geographic change. This afternoon I stopped at Whole Foods to get some snacks for the road. As I was leaving, the cashier called after me, “Have a successful week!” I’m taking his words as an affirmation and a blessing.

My Christmas cactuses are waiting patiently to travel with me to our new home. They are hoping they will like the light there. They’ve had to make a lot of adjustments here (I kept moving their table further and further away from the window before finding the sweet spot that didn’t turn their leaves purple) and I trust that they will adapt to whatever conditions we find there as well. Needless to say, I’m hoping that’s true for me too. Stay tuned.

Photo by Ruth Neuwald Falcon

16 Comments

  2. Hi Ruth, Happy Trails tomorrow. Glad you have a friend to drive with you. Hope you can stop and sight see along the way. Blessings to your both. Look forward to hearing about your travels.

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  3. I can’t believe you found time and focus to write on your blog but go girl!
    Travel safe, stop at a site or two and give my brother a big hug for me.
    Nitey-boo, I love you, Wen….xoxo

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  15. I just found this e-mail from weeks ago, Ruth . . .so you must be well settled in by now; what will our life be like now? Lots of changes? Good ones, I trust!

    Blessings, Stay in touch, Love,
    Susannah

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