Post #9
Days to Departure from Saskatoon: 8
Days to Departure from Western Canada: 26
Schedules are fine in theory but they tend to fly utterly out the window in the face of real-life events.
In the past week, I have learned of the death of my first cousin’s husband, who was only 45 and whom I loved a lot, as I do his wife and their young-adult sons. This meant I wanted to fly to the funeral in Vancouver, and I did, on Saturday. While I was there I learned by email of the terminal illness of a dear friend who is in her 90s but has not suffered a day of major ill health until this year.
I flew home and hosted a gathering of friends at Amigos here in Saskatoon yesterday, which was lovely but emotional. I am going to miss quite a few people who live here. And later yesterday I learned that I had become a grandmother for the first time (thanks, Matt and Nancy. You have made a beautiful little baby and thereby enriched my life in ways that I don’t have any inkling about now, and in ways that I already do).
Needless to say, none of these events has actually advanced the move that I am preparing for in any kind of physical way (i.e., the Brownie elves did NOT come in while I was in Vancouver and pack the books). As you will see from the attached photo, I am in more of a mess here than I was last time I took a photo. I think this is a good thing – a sign of some progress. But just now, at 4:30 on Monday afternoon, one week before the movers arrive, I noticed myself walking aimlessly from room to room, trying to remember what I was looking for and thinking instead about the people we learn to love, and the inevitability of loss.
So now I have sat down to try to prioritize what I absolutely must do and cross things off my lists that are not essential.
I decided one thing I could do right now was to write a blog post. And another thing I will do is to evaluate some work that has come in and figure out where I will slot it into my week. And I will put my furniture that is for sale on Kikiji. And that will be quite a bit of something, even if that’s all I get done for the rest of the day.
More soon.
I'm All Write 
Good luck with this, Mary. I think of even an ordinary house-cleaning as clearing back the jungle. I start hacking away in one corner in the hope that I will be able to gradually increase the space that now doesn’t need to be done. Packing for a move is a little more challenging, but I know you will get there. Somehow.