At the beginning of this year, I moved into a beautiful apartment in my favorite part of Helsinki. It's located in an older building from the 1920's (or a bit more older) and my windows face a park and the unbuilt grounds belonging to the Russian embassy. Outside my building are more parks, more old buildings, my parish church, and the sea. Inside, I still have the original (slightly shabby) hardwood floors, windows, and doors. As well as a beautifully renovated bathroom and kitchen.
So needless to say, I am very satisfied.
But this move was really difficult for me, not just because I took care of all the packing and unpacking alone, but because I lost the little schedules and rhythms my life was built around and couldn't seen to refind them. As those who know me best can attest to, I am an organizer. I could be one of those people that others hire out to rearrange their shelves and get rid of clutter. But when you move, you lose all the little organizational systems you've spent years building up.
Not only was everything not in its place, but everything did not even have a place to be in. For me, this meant personal disaster. I would try to tune out the piles of things with no where to go. The piles of papers with no work area to be stored away in. The paintings that were not yet hung up. But no matter how I tried, I felt very disoriented in my own home. And when I feel disoriented, I cannot get anything done.
And not only could I get stuff done, I wasn't really sure when to do them. Living within walking distance of most places where I needed to be meant that I didn't need a strict schedule for when to leave home and when to return. My days lost their balance between work and leisure and I began trying to do both at once. Which, of course, was a total failure.
But despite the chaos that moving caused, I am happy to say that this phase is finally nearing its end as everything starts to find a new home in my new home. And the days are becoming more productive as I start to sink into more structured rhythms once again.
And of one thing I am now sure. I hope there will be no need to move for a long, long time. Because moving is a lot more trouble than it should be and I would like to avoid it for as long as possible. And because I'm beginning to really enjoy the new rhythms that my life entails.
