Who Moved My Mirror?

Posted: October 28, 2011

I have been running at 100 kilometers an hour the last few months since my husband has been assigned to work 2 years on a new project from a new place – read new country!! Being the dutiful spouses that we are (not!), we started evaluating our individual options and lo behold, decided to embark on our new adventure!

I started with segregating the ‘what to take’ from the ‘what to leave behind,’ and I am still sorting and searching within the list. Along with a bunch of awesome friends, wonderful memories and in-numerous ‘laugh till your stomach hurts’ moments, we also managed to gather some 245 spoons, 936 pretty shopping bags, thousands of tiny eco-kids play toys and zillions of eat-out vouchers! As a woman it is SO hard to let go of these so-called ‘small things’ in your life!

‘What if we run out of spoons, let’s take all of them’

‘ My daily recipe calendar where I chart my daily to-dos, of course I need it’

‘ My little one’s plastic painting apron – what if I don’t find a similar one again’

‘The butterfly stickers on room windows can stay, but the remaining 10 in the stack will adorn our new windows’

‘Wind chimes from the backyard will sit in a potted plant in the unit we will live in’

These are just a few drops to describe the mighty ocean of things I decided to carry on my tiny shoulders to make my new home. I did not need my dear partner or my lovely daughter to complete my home, as would most sane women!

What I wanted to carry with me were not pricey baubles; they were earthy, inexpensive things that one can purchase in any part of the world. Why could I not cut the umbilical cord here? Is it the emotion of having slept on an ottoman last 5 years that is taking me over? Or is it the financial impracticality of buying a new piece of furniture? Or is it something bigger than that – a socio-emotional need to reuse and re-savor your past, as you are not ready to leave it behind? Or is it part of our cultural DNA, as I saw my partner throw stone-cold expressions for every emotional outburst (as described by him) of mine.

These and many more questions raced past my tiny brains as I almost completed wrapping my last napkin holder I purchased on sale at the local markets. Maybe it is a girl thing or maybe it is very difficult to move to a new place, meet new people, make new friends and manage to build a new home. All I now know is I am ready for all that comes across in this ride and sincerely hope I return with a big bag of friends and a bigger container of my treasures!

Guest Blogger Lavanya Sampath is a young working mum, an Indian living abroad, a budding entrepreneur and a singer. Music, arts and photography are her passion. In her own words, “I jot down my personal & professional experiences to reach out to women in similar situations.”

Photo credit: Jane Cleary

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4 Comments

Hip Grandma - October 28, 2011 at 2:20 pm

Clinging on to one’s possession is a way of clinging on to one’s past. It is natural to want to carry with you liitle items that bond you with the place that was your home for the past many years. My husband clings on to the manual grinder – the one with two round stone slabs on one top of the other and a handle to rotate the upper one – saying that the archaic piece cannot be bought again and is priceless since it belonged to his mother. Luckily we’ve remained here for the 38 years of our married life. I wonder if he will carry it along if we ever relocate to some other town in future. I have an inkling that he will.

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Lavanya Sampath - October 29, 2011 at 12:56 am

Thanks for reading my post. Interesting point Hip Grandma that you might find a male DNA to react this way in a similar situation. But would they have similar reasons behind their behavior?

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chandrima - October 30, 2011 at 2:22 pm

Very true feelings. It is tough to relocate from a home to a new house, from known streets to unknown ones. i went through the same feelings recently, here I share my feelings of that time with you.
http://blog-e-zine.blogspot.com/2010/10/floating-with-flow.html
It is normal to cling to the stuff just for emotional reasons, just like a child always keeps the stone in his pocket that he found near the sea!

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Lavanya Sampath - October 31, 2011 at 2:20 am

Thanks Chandrima! And your feelings well put in words in your blog. Hope you have settled in your new home!

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