Moving to Spain

It's official. We are moving to Spain! I have a residency visa in my passport. I have a plane ticket.  Counting today, I leave in 50 days. I imagine these will be days full of packing, selling, donating our stuff so that I can get down to a sane amount of suitcases. I have so very much to take care of and do before leaving.

Backyard CA poppy - May 2016

I am feeling a deep need to celebrate and savor this time. We arrived in San Francisco almost 8 years ago from Atlanta with a rental car full of our possessions - clothes, bikes, computers and dishes. Since then, we have put down roots. Friendships have grown like spiderwebs connecting us to the vibrant, small world of the Bay Area. We've hiked and biked the hills, danced and improvised in light filled studios, adopted a cat (no worries, she's coming with us).

Me and Leeloo share a moment - May 2016

At the same time, I am aware of a call to mourn and say goodbye. Because I don't know if I'll be back to live here again. The Bay Area is currently one of the most expensive places to live in this country. I imagine the rent on our apartment, which is rent controlled, will increase by at least 40% for the next tenant(s). There is a tension here as our current, untenable systems, which are those of oppression, become glaringly obvious. Silence is no longer - should never have been - an option.

Found heart in bench in La Mission - June 2016

Leaving feels like an abandonment. Leaving feels like an ending. Leaving feels like an uprooting of life.

Going feels like an adventure. Going feels like a new chapter. Going feels like a turning of the soil in my heart.