It seems arbitrary that this day of all days marks a new year. Why doesn’t every day mark a new year? Every day is exactly one year away from the same day one full rotation of the earth around the sun ago, so what makes this one so remarkable? It concludes the calendar year; resets the sequence of days, weeks, months engineered by ideas of cyclical measurements for linear time; affords one the opportunity to resolve things, if only in one’s mind.
It is uncertain what this next year will unfold, but whatever it is, it will happen in the sun. It’s official. I am moving to Phoenix. I have accepted an amazing job offer and my new employer is going to relocate me, all my belongings, and my crabby little dog across the country from Chicago to Phoenix. It’s right and appropriate that this should be where I land after three decades in the world. I have always been pulled by this part of the country.
Rebecca will be driving me to the airport tomorrow on New Year’s Day. It was exactly five years ago that I drove her to the airport in Chicago on New Year’s Day to cash in her one way ticket back to Phoenix. I thought I might never see her again.
The next time I fly to Chicago, it will be for a visit. I spent 5.5 years living in Chicago. Some of the most important people in my life are there. It will be an emotional two weeks to start out the new year, filled with goodbye’s, boxes, anticipation, relief, regret, fear, gratitude, lots of running (because that helps), and many last times. “This is the last time I’ll go to this meeting,” and “last time I’ll eat here,” and “last time I’ll run down this path,” etc.
Life has carried me in unexpected directions these past three months. It’s as though a current swept me quickly away from where I was and what I was doing. Elsewhere, other, over here, now. I have been moving my feet and breathing in and out. Beyond that, I don’t know how I got here. Regardless, it’s a major transformation that will demand from me all I’ve got then demand more. I will have to expand, grow into it, stay grateful, and accept all that is. What’s true is true.
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