Why have we moved so much? What makes us leave home and family and strike out for a new land? Some of it is wanderlust. Some is curiosity. Some is desperation, fleeing war and famine. But much of it is simpler: people move for opportunity.<\/p>\n
I grew up with mixed signals around moving. There were always new kids in school whose families had just moved to town. Occasionally I\u2019d go back to school in the fall to find that a friend had moved away. One of my grandfathers moved to Chattanooga to take a job as a machinist, while the other came to work on TVA projects in the Great Depression. On the other hand, my parents lived in the same house from two years before I was born until after my father died. I never knew what it was like to pack up and move.<\/p>\n I eagerly went away to college \u2013 all of 100 miles away. I had a car and I came home on weekends when I felt like it. As a freshman, that was a lot. As a senior, not so much. My first job was in Nashville \u2013 that didn\u2019t work out well and the job was only part of it. I moved back to Chattanooga after two years, met Cathy, got married, built a house on the back of my parents\u2019 property, and expected to stay in Chattanooga forever.<\/p>\n \u201cForever\u201d turned out to be eight years. The factory where I worked shut down. An opportunity arose in Indiana and I took it, beginning what would be three cross country moves in six years.<\/p>\n In The Chaos Protocols<\/a><\/em>, Gordon White emphasizes the need to move when and where it\u2019s necessary in order to find the opportunities you need. He also points out that people are 35% less mobile than they were at the height of American economic dominance. I remember when IBM stood for \u201cI\u2019ve Been Moved\u201d \u2013 when large corporations moved employees around the country every few years. The rise of two-career couples made that more difficult, not to mention the sheer expense of moving households on a regular basis. Being a migrant worker is disruptive to your life and your relationships. It\u2019s no fun even if you\u2019re being paid an executive salary to do it.<\/p>\n But the cold hard fact is that the economy is getting less secure all the time and that\u2019s not likely to change. If there are no good jobs (or not enough good jobs) where you are, move. If housing costs so much you can\u2019t build any savings, move.<\/p>\n And Gordon didn\u2019t say it, but I will: if a place is sucking out your soul, move. I don\u2019t mean move to another country because you don\u2019t like who wins an election<\/a> (seriously, do you think any President is going to have that much of an impact on your personal life?). I hated Indiana, and not just because I had a bad job there. Pick up today\u2019s job, friends, church, and CUUPS group and drop them in South Bend and I still wouldn\u2019t move back. Do what you have to do, but taking care of yourself and your family means more than just making enough money.<\/p>\n Moving isn\u2019t a panacea. If you don\u2019t have marketable skills (which is not the same thing as a college degree or certifications), moving isn\u2019t likely to help you. If you\u2019re flat broke, moving may be impossible. I\u2019ve never moved without a job in hand and I don\u2019t recommend it, but I know some people who\u2019ve done it successfully\u2026 and some who haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n But beyond those few caveats, if you can do a better job of making a decent living in another part of the country, move! Moving brings other benefits too.<\/p>\n Moving reboots your life<\/strong>. The days when you could move to some frontier town and start completely over are long gone. Your high school teachers were right \u2013 you do have a permanent record and erasing it is difficult\u2026 and beyond the scope of this post. But if you\u2019re not trying to outrun arrest warrants, moving can do a good job of rebooting your life.<\/p>\n Yes, it\u2019s a pain to have to find new doctors, dentists, and hair dressers. But it\u2019s also an opportunity get a fresh take on your health and appearance. It\u2019s a pain to have to find new grocery stores and restaurants. But it\u2019s also an opportunity to try some new foods.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to leave friends and family behind, but that can let you get away from relationships that are comfortable but limiting\u2026 and Skype and social media make it easier than ever to stay in touch with the ones you really want to keep. I\u2019ve been out of Chattanooga for 21 years now and I\u2019m still in touch with my closest friends from home.<\/p>\n Moving brings new experiences<\/strong>. I lived in Indiana for 2 years 4 months and 9 days\u2026 not that I was counting. It was a miserable experience. But because I did, I got to experience real snow in a real winter. I got to go to a Big Ten football game (it was fun, but the atmosphere doesn\u2019t compare to the SEC) and a baseball game at Wrigley Field (which was awesome). I got to do a reading at a \u201cdark poetry\u201d event (mine was prose \u2013 I may be a Bard but I still can\u2019t compose verse worth anything at all). Minor things? Yes \u2013 and considering how many hours I was working, I was lucky to be able to do that. But they\u2019re things I wouldn\u2019t have been able to do if I had stayed in Chattanooga. The list is far longer for my time in Atlanta (4 years) and Texas (15 years and counting).<\/p>\n Moving helps you declutter<\/strong>. There\u2019s nothing like having to pack up everything and haul it across the country to push you to get rid of the stuff you don\u2019t need. Even if you have professional movers, you\u2019re still going to have to go over it before they start\u2026 and you\u2019ll have to unpack it yourself as you set up the new house.<\/p>\n With three cross-country moves in six years, Cathy and I were relatively decluttered when we got to Texas (except for books \u2013 I have tons of books, she has more, and neither of us ever get rid of them). I shudder to think about how much stuff we\u2019ll have to throw out when\/if we move again.<\/p>\n Moving builds resilience<\/strong>. You never know how strong you are until you have to be strong. When the only thing you have is a job and a place to live, you figure out how to find all the other people and things that make life fun and fulfilling. You realize you can learn your way around a new city. I\u2019ve driven in most of the major cities in the U.S. \u2013 other than New York City, none of them scare me.<\/p>\n Moving removes barriers to growth<\/strong>. I first met the God of the Forest<\/a> in Chattanooga, but I couldn\u2019t see Him for who He is until I moved to Texas. Chattanooga is a great place to live \u2013 and a lot more Nature-friendly than here \u2013 but I have so much baggage there. So many expectations from others that carried over into my expectations for myself. I began my Pagan journey while I was living there, but I had to make three cross-country moves before I was ready to get serious<\/a>.<\/p>\n Could I have become the Druid and priest I am today if I had stayed at home? It\u2019s possible, but it seems very, very unlikely. I needed to lose all the hometown baggage first.<\/p>\n Moving is a young person\u2019s game<\/strong>. With all that said, and with the full acknowledgement that anything can happen in the more-than-a-few years left before retirement, I hope I don\u2019t have to move again, at least not cross-country. I want to make one more move, 30 miles west from McKinney to Denton. That will give us a chance to declutter and to be closer to our friends in our old age.<\/p>\n Moving is physically exhausting. And it\u2019s expensive, particularly if you\u2019ve gathered too much stuff (see the paragraph on decluttering). I lost a considerable amount of money on my move from Indiana to Atlanta. I made it back in a couple years, and in any case getting out of there was worth whatever it cost. But the primary purpose of moving for greater opportunity is to help your financial situation, not make it worse, and if you\u2019re close to retirement you may not have enough years to make it work out.<\/p>\n Of course, given the harsh realities of the job market, you may not have a choice.\u00a0 But if you do, settle in somewhere well before you get too old to demonstrate your resilience one more time.<\/p>\n I can still remember crying softly as I drove away from our first house for the last time. This was home, and I thought I was going to be there forever. It didn\u2019t work out that way. But if it hadn\u2019t been for that first big move, and the two that followed it, my life would have been much poorer \u2013 economically and spiritually.<\/p>\n![\"putting](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2016\/04\/1988-scan0002-300x216.jpg\")
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