Nice to meet you :)

So this weekend I met my future cities. Plural since we'll be multi-city people once again. So it's official. We are moving to Durham, NH to the home of the University of New Hampshire where mumu will work, 10 minutes away from the lovely Portsmouth, NH, an hour from Boston, MA.

It is hard to imagine a move right now, as I am cozied up in our spare bedroom, outlooking the cherry blossom tree in front of our house, sipping my tea slowly with my laptop on my lap. And yet our days here are numbered, the count-down has begun.

The move brings up a lot of unsettling thoughts for me. Portsmouth as cute as it is, is a small town. I grew up in one. Do I want to live in one now? Yet I'm assured by mumu and friends that Boston is close enough. I am also worried about making new friends. It took us years to build up relationships, both personal and professional ones. Part of me wants to pack them up and take them with me as well :))

And then there is all the 'stuff'. Clothing, furniture, that desktop that we don't use. The bicycles that are rusting outdoors, my MBA class notes (yes I kept them :), and tons of other stuff. Lots to go through, and let go. And yet, when I'm sitting on my sofa-bed right now, everything seems sooo rooted, all the furniture seems finally in place and harmonious. Sorry furniture, we're about to uproot all of you :))

The same feeling is inside of me also. Everything seemed in place and now the dust is in the air. I thought I was ready to move but am I? I'm attached to so many things that are here, the house, the roads, the familiarity, the habits. The 'knowing' of what's where. Then I'm reading the story of Thich Nhat Hanh. He is a buddhist monk who got exiled from his homeland Vietnam. He says he dreamt of getting back to his homeland for a year and his main buddhist practice became being with the people, the scents, sounds, sights, places, parks, children and everything else around him (which was France at the time), being present and learning to love them, to make it his new home. I hope that I can be as present as he is.

The one thing I remember from Durham, Portsmouth and Boston: the wonderfully fresh and clean air as I stepped outside. It hits you and welcomes you and it feels different than DC or anywhere else I have been to, hard to explain. The beautiful chunky pieces of snow that fell over our hotel in Portsmouth (picture 1). The inexplicably attractive and serene Boston Common park (pictures 2 and 3). My friend Megan's loving tone as she spoke of her Boston neighborhood, neighbors and the new friends she made there. The scent of history in Boston, the scent of being a loved city in Portsmouth.

So this was our first introduction. All seemed cool. I do hope that I will find more to love in the upcoming months in our new home in New England. And I do hope that New England will welcome us, maybe even love us back, show us its treasures and will be kind to us as we root ourselves once again :)

Stay tune for more on our uprooting! :))
Namaste
Damla