Yesterday, J. and I signed the papers at the lawyer’s office.

It’s official: our house is sold!

We have to be out of here by July 8th (gulp!) and while that’s a wee bit, um, stressful, the universe does seem to be smiling upon us.

Through a couple random turns of fate, we connected with a couple in town who are moving south and until we can position ourselves closer to our families in Ontario and Winnipeg’s rich arts community, we’ll be renting from them for the next who-knows-how-long.

Bonus: they have a huge hot tub on their back deck.

As I sort through boxes that haven’t been opened since we moved here (finding lots of heart-rending pictures of Tim in the process), contemplate what to do with the desktop computer that hasn’t been turned on since 2012, and prepare for the big yard sale we’re having this weekend (LOADS of books!), I keep imagining myself sinking into that warm, soothing water and slowly recovering from the stress of the past several months…

And while it will be different, and there are things I’ll miss – the incredible amount of birds, including loons calling from Grace Lake at dawn, the wetland trail behind our house, the pelicans soaring between lake and river – I’m looking forward to the change.

It will be nice to be able to walk to the grocery store and the gym, to invite friends over for drinks (and a soak!), and to take Mowat on town walks which have until now just been a special treat for him (being an extrovert with introvert parents, he is generally deprived of contact – even from a distance – with other humans…).

I’m also excited about being in a fresh, new space.

As any artist knows, a change of scenery can be good for the creative process. And I’ve got a lot of ‘processing’ to do. Twice in the last couple of weeks I’ve spoken at length with my editor (who loved my manuscript, by the way!), and I’ve got to get this new baby cleaned up, diapered, dressed in her best and delivered to my agent by the end of August…

But for now: making to do lists and slowly scratching away at them, sorting, sifting, tossing, selling, packing… The things we must do to organize and assemble the material elements of our lives.