Sorting Through Emotions
Ten days ago, I moved from Berwyn, PA to Melbourne, FL. A move I’ve thought about for many years. I’ve visited Melbourne for the last 10 years and know several people here in the area. It seems the more people I told I was moving to Florida, the more people told me they were doing the same.
Moving is emotional, there is no way around it. Emotional for both me and my cat Ziggy. I was able to process the emotions of grief, loss, change, fear and uncertainty just to name a few. But Ziggy, well, he had a little harder time processing all those changes we’ve been through in the last year including death of my mom and his little brother Zack.
In February, I hired a Cat Whisperer (or Cat Behaviorist depending on my thoughts around the situation). She was awesome. She recommended several things to do for Ziggy and compared to our move down the hall in 2013, he was much more adjusted through all this change moving to Florida with her suggestions – Special food (that was medicated) along with plug ins and collars. And, yes, toys, playtime and lots of conversation with him about what we were doing. He’s one smart kitty. So smart that the morning of our departure (after the movers left the apartment empty for both of us to see), he surprised me by getting into his carrier (for the 1,000 mile ride) all by himself. I worried about his resistance, but there was none. Just a whimper every so often to make sure I was still in the car with him. And of course, once we arrived at our new home, he couldn’t resist the screened patio for his daily enjoyment. For an animal that can’t process emotions like us humans, he adjusted pretty darn good, after his severe separation anxiety episode he suffered months prior.
As for me? Well, the story continues. As I began unpacking boxes and setting up my office, I came across some books. Oh, so many books, where was I going to put all of them. I separated out the books on book publishing so I could refer to them frequently. But the books that most caught my eye were the 3 books by Julia Cameron – The Artist’s Way, Vein of Gold and Walking in this World. The Artist’s Way I had done so many times – both on my own and facilitating it numerous times in 5 separate groups over the past few years. The book Walking in this World spoke to me and I immediately held it and said, “I’m going to work on the exercises in this book.”
I pulled out a journal I had completed just prior to moving – a nice leather bound journal with 200 hand stitched pages – and began reading and following Julia’s instructions: Daily Morning Pages; Weekly Artist’s Date and at a minimum, a weekly walk. I had fallen off the wagon on my daily journaling with the move, so it was a welcome task to complete – almost a feeling of “I can’t wait to wake up and do my pages” … The weekly Artist Date was an easy task too. Love doing those and have for years. And the walk? Well, I welcome exploring my new territory with the added bonus of the beach only 10 minutes away.
So as I process my own emotions around the move, Walking in this World will help facilitate my processing, along with my personal growth of moving to a new area. I’m excited to see where it all takes me.
Meanwhile, my art beckons me. I have several visions in my head that I want to complete, and have to finalize the set up of my art materials on my 3 tier red cart. Oh the joy of unpacking and setting up new space. And, I must put up my drapes/curtains… even though I face a golf course with trees blocking anyone’s view of my interior, still I’d like to finish off the windows with the curtains I bought especially for each of my rooms.
So you must be wondering, what motivates me to get going after taking almost a month off to finalize the packing, move and now unpacking? I must admit the mornings are tempting to sleep in. Especially today, when Ziggy jumped up and said “come on, let’s get up,” I wanted to roll over and close my eyes for another hour or two. But, I didn’t. Why? Because of the thrill and excitement of getting back to the keyboard and writing.
I’ve had this blog post in my head for several days now but wasn’t going to write it until today. And despite any unpacked boxes that may be hovering around me, I was going to write regardless starting today. I have so many writing projects on a long list of writing to do’s that I only hope you don’t get sick of reading my posts.
So as I begin to process my emotions of grief, loss, change, fear and uncertainty just to name a few, I look forward to the process and excited for the journey into the unknown. Stay tuned folks… it’s just the beginning of a new adventure… and probably a few more books.
Keeping you in Love and Light…
Rosemary Augustine
P. S., If you would like information on the Cat Behaviorist, please check out Ziggy’s FaceBook page, since he posted a comment on her as his new BFF on March 4th. See: www.FaceBook.com/MyCoolCatZiggy and like and follow him while you’re at it. Thanks so much!
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