Calming the Chaos
The average Canadian moves between 5-6 times during our lifetime and regardless of the reason, taking pictures off the walls and spending hours stuffing possessions into duct-taped boxes, hoping they’ll be intact when they arrive at our new home, is never fun.
So Bonnie hired me to help her with this task as she didn’t want to burden her out-of-town children or her aging, arthritic friends.
“This move will be my last, she told me between sobs. I’m so angry. Not angry at Larry, but angry at the disease that took him. He was my rock. He always looked after all the details. He handled all the money, looked after the sale of our homes, and hired the movers. Who will be my new friends? Where will I get my groceries? How often will the kids visit me? I’m so overwhelmed, I don’t know what to do.”
She reached out to me from her recliner and I just held her, silently praying for comfort.
The next day, I picked a small bouquet from our cutting garden and placed it on the end table where she sits and offered a suggestion.
“Try not to focus on all the boxes and bare walls. Instead when you feel afraid, take a couple of deep breaths and gaze at the bouquet. And remember that the Designer who created these summer flowers has a beautiful design for your new life, too. Hopefully, that will help.”
And it did.
By the way…
While fresh flowers purchased from a florist are a treat, you can create a lovely focal point for your table with what you have. A mason jar can hold dry grasses from the roadside. A single bloom floating in a soup bowl is also lovely. Sometimes, I go to our local florist and they give me stems of salal and leather fern for free. I plunk them into a piece of pottery I got from the thrift store. If I do purchase a bouquet from the grocery store, I often separate it, creating several smaller arrangements, placing them beside my bed or on the bathroom counter, multiplying the joy!