Metacentricities

Some of you know that I am most likely moving back to Western Massachusetts at the beginning of next year. I do like California, but W. Mass very much feels like my home, and I’d wanted to return. There is a way that the landscape enriches me, and enfolds me, that I haven’t found anywhere else. Thankfully, Ruth is willing, able, and interested to move. So that is the plan.

We just spent the last few days here in W. Mass house hunting. We spent two days driving around, looking at a lot of places, from New Salem to Chester, and almost every town in between. Some we just drove by, and could tell we wouldn’t want to live there. Others we got out of the car, walked around, and tried to feel how the setting and the house felt - to see whether it was possible to imagine living in that place.

Today, we went to four houses that were on the top of our list - to look at the inside, talk with the realtor (who has done a real yeoman’s job for us) get a better feeling for the houses, and what they are like. One was a sort-of in-town rather ordinary house, on a quiet street (next to a very un-ordinary contemporary house) that had a nice view. One was an apple farm with a completely stunning view in a far away town, that would be a huge project. One was probably one of the strangest houses that exist (the story behind the house was rather interesting.) And one was an unusual converted mill in a sweet setting next to a rushing stream.

One of the things we’ve been talking about is how this process is, at some level, not at all about any of the houses, or one particular house. It’s not about how many bedrooms they have, or how big or small they are, or what kind of heating system they have. Or, really, how much they cost. It’s about our own understandings about home, the things we attach to it (or have been attached to it by our pasts) our own graspings and aversions, our sets of motivations and reasonings and questions about the lives we want to lead.

I’m reminded of a friend of mine who moved to New Mexico, to work with some folks who see building houses as a spiritual practice, because of all of the things that get brought up in the process - things that, in the end, aren’t about the house at all. This is the same - finding a house has been, for us, a spiritual practice and teacher, because of all that it has brought to the forefront.

We both have the extraordinary gift of being able to live basically anywhere. It is both a gift, and a burden sometimes - it leads to so many possible options (except McMansions in housing developments.) But we also have ideas and dreams about community, and being of service, and those are very important to us. We haven’t made a final decision yet, and if we don’t, we’ll rent a house for a while. But the process has been illuminating, sometimes stressful, often enjoyable, always deep, and quite educational. And truly full and rich. I’ll keep you posted.

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