Moving on....

This week I spent some family time at my Nan's house. She has moved into residential care and the small house needs to be cleared for sale. I came home with a share of 'useful' objects as well as some bits that are part of remembering her and Grandad specifically. We also had time with old family photos - part memories part new encounters with younger versions of family members.

At the same time a friend has been sorting and packing their house to move to a new post as a minister, and I had a conversation with another friend who has been making the decision to move next year. That and the fact the tenants in my extravagant but small purchase of a retirement flat are moving on leaving me to find new folk...

It has got me thinking about my own worldly goods, and my life as an itinerant minister.  My ordination was a time when people outside of 'the system' wondered if this would mark a move to a new area. It doesn't but even with the set 3 years I have left here, if feels so brief.  A reminder that the long term future of the congregations I support is in their hands (and God's!) and not mine.

I moved in nearly 3 years ago, and settled as if here for the forseeable (and 6 years will be longer than any other place I have been since 18!) But 3 years is a short time to have left, do I invest in the garden work, or begin to think of myself as a temporary resident?

'Life is a journey' and yet roots are important too.  How do we balance travelling light yet daring to commit to the places where we are, and can I get my head around a possible 5 major moves ahead of me. Maybe there is a time to not look at the full journey and just at the next leg of it, I am here and need to be fully here whilst here, whether  a long or short time.