It’s officially “Packing Day” at The Gorntos. We’ve been packing slowly for weeks. We’ve picked up the pace a little bit over the last week, but today? Today the professionals are joining us to finish the job. I have all my ridiculous, but wonderful labels out and ready for them when they get here. (This is what happens when you think you’re moving into a new house, but it turns out you’re moving into a storage unit for a month.)
Raise your hand if you’ve been there.
Seriously. It’s the culmination of the most intense and stressful year of my life, trying to fill all my “normal” roles as wife, mama, (friend), business-grower leading a brand new team, all while building a house, selling a house and preparing to move. I realize that every single thing I’ve mentioned above is an enormous blessing. They’re each blessings beyond anything I can imagine. AND when you combine all the blessings together into one year, it makes for a giant load.
The kind of load you can only carry one step at a time.
Today, I am supposed to have everything packed up separately that will need over the next 4 weeks as a family so that the packers can come in and wrangle all the rest. That sounds simple enough. Except, that we’ve also been packing our china, Lego structures and other “precious” items and hauling them over to my parent’s garage by the car load. So no, I haven’t finished packing all the things we will need, and setting them aside. I will beg for mercy when the ladies arrive this morning.
A girl can only do what she can do.
But I know this, once these labels are affixed to the boxes carrying the physical manifestation of all the memories we’ve made in this house over almost 15 years, I’m going to feel a wild combination of both relief and sadness. We’ve built our whole life inside these walls. Each of the boys was born while we lived in this house. They learned to crawl, walk and eventually sleep through the night here. They learned to read, swim and ride their bikes here. They’ve become little men in this house. Scott and I both built brand new businesses from our desks here. We’ve weathered the storms of life and marriage here. We shared meals, tears, laughter and all sorts of memories with hundreds of friends here. We lost our first pet here. Sure, those labels represent all “the stuff”.
But they are really little tokens of my life.
As we’ve been packing, I’ve been feeling a lot of things. There’ve been happy moments remembering joy. There have been sad moments remembering pain. And there have been a few heavy moments that I can’t even take in yet. Some boxes are heavy, some are light. “Packing Day” is a vivid representation of the journey of life.
A girl can only do what she can do.
Wherever you are on the journey today, give yourself some gentle grace. Carry only what you can. Take it one step, one load at a time. Feel what you need to feel. Make the calls you need to make. Pay attention to your own needs. Sure, others have expectations of you.
But here’s a little reminder: It’s okay if you don’t meet them.
That’s the gift of “Packing Day”.
to more love,
Crystal
