I guess I am supposed to feel happy about that, but it was a very bittersweet thing, actually. While we were sitting at this table in the settlement office with the young, newlywed couple who bought our house, as well as our giddy real estate agents, and some other official people taking their cut of the deal and signing piles of papers, Marcus and I both said, at least 3 or 4 times, "we really loved this house--we hope you will, too" or "it's a great neighborhood, we hope you'll enjoy living there." It was probably kind of annoying for them, but we were feeling nostalgic and sad and a little bit like we were leaving our hip, carefree urban life to be older, mature, responsible parents who have moved to the suburbs (sigh).
We asked them when they were planning to move in and the woman of the couple told us: "In a couple of weeks. This weekend we are going to have a painting party with my parents--they like to do that kind of thing. Oh, and sorry...the clouds are going to be the first thing to go."
You see, when we turned our study into a crib room for Nora, I had Marcus paint the ceiling a bright sky blue. Then I made clouds with white paint and a sponge. It was so cute. But of course I didn't expect that the new owners would necessarily want to keep the clouds. I also knew that they probably wouldn't keep the bright yellow rubber ducky bathroom, and they might even want to change the purple and green bedrooms. It's their house now, and they can and should do whatever they want. But I don't want to hear about it!
Here I was feeling kind of sad and nostalgic and homesick and this chick was talking about how she was going to redecorate MY HOUSE!
The next day--after I had thought about it for a while--it occured to me that it might be a message from God. Maybe it was God's not-so-subtle way of giving me a word of caution about how and when to inititate changes in this new place where I am living. And I don't mean the parsonage--I mean the church.
Lots of people have told me that they are looking forward to changes, and most people, I think, are supportive of change, because some change can be a really good thing. But the key is in the timing and approach. I hope that I am being sensitive to any grief that people may have about the change in leadership at Woodside, and that as we talk about things that may be different in the future I am building support for those changes and not just busting in and redecorating.
I think there will be some "rooms to repaint" at Woodside, but I am not buying the house--I'm moving in! So I hope it will be a painting party that everyone will want to be a part of. I sure wouldn't want to try and do it alone!
So...how do you feel about the color red?
3 comments:
Rev. Rachel,
Your blog is great, its so cool to read your journals and learn more about you in the process. And don't worry, your growing up and moving into the suburbs, but from where i'm standing...you and marcus are still pretty hip. I would go out for a night in Downtown silver spring with u, marcus, and nora any day of the week...lol
Red is nice, but if we really want to catch the attention of people I think we should paint the narthex that rubber ducky yellow! ;-)
I'm partial to Green...
We've been in our first house for about 9 years. It's hard to think about someone redecorating our haven, but I know they would...they'd have too to make it their own.
Our home's only previous owners had divorced several years earlier and the man couldn't really afford to keep it any longer.
Early on, I could almost feel the negative energy or grief in the house. And sometimes I think about that couple who were eagerly starting out life together and building this wonderful house and it makes me sad.
At least you were able to leave behind such good, loving memories. I hope if we ever leave here, we will be able to do that too.
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