\n| <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Ten years ago this week I was handed a layoff notice. It wasn\u2019t a shock \u2013 reorganization had been discussed for months and the factory where I worked wasn\u2019t going to have enough volume left to support all of its staff. But it was still frustrating \u2013 it was the third job that went away within a seven year period. The first two had required cross-country moves to find a new job and I knew there was a high probability this one would too.<\/p>\n And that bothered me. The first move was an adventure\u2026 an adventure that turned into a nightmare. The second move got me out of that nightmare. It also brought me to Atlanta. It was my first experience living in (or at least, in the suburbs of) a major city. It was close enough to my childhood home and family without being too close. Hills and trees were right outside my door and mountains were an hour away. I had a nice house. I had some good friends. I\u2019m a builder at heart and I had finally started building the kind of life I had always wanted. I liked living in Atlanta and I did not want to leave it all behind. <\/p>\n Obviously I did leave. I moved in late 2001 and I\u2019ve been in North Texas ever since. I miss the hills and trees and mountains and I wish I could get home a little more often, but other than that I\u2019m happier here than I ever was there. <\/p>\n More importantly, this move opened up spiritual opportunities I never had in Atlanta. Would I have found a CUUPS group there? Would I have even gone looking for one? Would I have set aside my suburban pastimes to pick up OBOD studies? Would I have had the opportunity to serve and lead and speak in a UU church? Would I have started this blog? It\u2019s impossible to say for sure where \u201cthe road not taken\u201d would have ended up, but I think it\u2019s highly unlikely I would have grown spiritually in Atlanta the way I have here.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t set out to do all this. I just set out to do what I had to do \u2013 to find another job at roughly the same level. In making the unpleasant but necessary decision to move and move on, I opened myself up to a life I couldn\u2019t have imagined ten years ago.<\/p>\n That layoff notice was frustrating and painful, but it led to great things.<\/p>\n Where do you need to move and move on?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ten years ago this week I was handed a layoff notice. It wasn\u2019t a shock \u2013 reorganization had been discussed for months and the factory where I worked wasn\u2019t going to have enough volume left to support all of its staff. But it was still frustrating \u2013 it was the third job that went away […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n Move and Move On<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ten years ago this week I was handed a layoff notice. 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