The Move

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So, here I am again today. I’m guest hosting at dVerse Poets Pub for Haibun Monday. The pub opens in about an hour. Come join us!

I’m in seventh grade when my parents get divorced, and we move from Dallas, TX, to Havertown, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia. I’m scared, but I’m also excited. My sisters, mom, and I move from the land of chicken-fried steak and football—where I always felt like an outsider—to a place that feels both foreign and like home. I was born in Philadelphia, as were my parents and siblings. Here my grandfather visits, bringing us lox, cream cheese, and bagels on Sunday mornings. The divorce and resettling without my father living with us is a transition, and it brings many changes, but my father also moves north and remains in our lives. I always feel loved.

Now, I wonder who I would be if we hadn’t moved—though I feel like I’ve always been the same me inside. And though junior high is pretty much universally terrible wherever it is, in ninth grade, I meet a boy. Years later, Reader, I married him.

 

wind blows west and east

summer gales and winter sighs—

acorn sprouts and thrives

 

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81 thoughts on “The Move”

  1. Oh wow! I knew about the big move from somewhere along our friendship’periwinkle’ path but I think (maybe) I had forgotten your meeting your future husband, Merril. What a lovely introduction to your haibun which suits the recent changing weather with gales, as well as the nicely succinct path of an acorn into a tree. 🌳

  2. I’m not sure why but somewhere along my spell check patterns, I put an apostrophe in along with periwinkle! So, hopefully you may now see I meant to have friendship’s path. 💗

  3. Moving to another town and/or country can bring lots of changes but also bring new tastes, images and opportunities. Good for you to retain that same family closeness and even finding and marrying the love of your life. Thanks for hosting!!!

    • Thank you, so much Björn. Yes, I really wonder about that–what would have happened if we had stayed in Dallas. I think it definitely felt like coming home for my mom. She chose to be with my dad’s family (who she stayed friendly with) rather than her own brother and father who had moved to Miami because she wanted to be in an area that was more familiar, I think.

  6. Oh…thank you for hosting and for sharing this haibun, Merrill! I love how your haiku magnifies your prose…the wind blowing east and west (your moving) and then the acorns taking root….as did you in your new place of residence. I’m glad your father remained in your life. And how amazing to have your highschool friend become your spouse! Really enjoyed reading this one!

  8. Oh, lovely! The recounting of this transition tinged with the wonderment if anything would have been different otherwise provides such a depth to our experiences and their corresponding impact in our lives. I loved the image of the acorn sprouting and thriving. 🙂

  11. Thank you for sharing your personal experience with what was indeed a huge change. You capture that time in your life very well.

  12. As a kid, we moved around a lot, so home was wherever we were at the moment. My big transition was when I moved out on my own. My wife is from TX, and she moved up here in WA state to be with me; but family is everything. We make a lot of trips to TX.

  14. I love the haiku here. It brings it all together. Moving about as a child can be so hard but at the same time, it opens you up to all kinds of changes. I am glad you survived the moved and that you keep the poetic closeness.

  15. Wow! From the 9th grade. I love stories like that. Gives me hope. Your dad also moving to the same area, that was love all around😊. Kids should always come first. A nice write Merril, thanks for hosting.

    Pat R

  19. High school sweethearts! I was also in 7th grade when my parents divorced. At the time it seemed like the transition went fairly well, it was only way later on – my mid-20s – when I realized how much pain the broken family had inflicted. How repression hurts too. The detail of the lox in lieu of chicken-fried steak added to the imagery of strange but home.

  21. I so enjoy anecdotes and finding the familiar in the unfamiliar. Moving is scary and exciting at the same time, wherever you’re moving from and to. I imagine we’ve all wondered ‘what if…?’ I love the nod to Charlotte Bronte!

    • Thank you, Kim! Yes, I suppose there are always the what ifs?
      When our younger daughter got married, she carried a fan she had made with that quotation on it. Her bridesmaids had other literary quotations on theirs.

  22. I can totally relate to this ….we also recently moved to a new place. …new environmet…new friends ..new culture…its difficult but in time i know we would be able to adjust.

  23. so love the haiku as it showed me that winds can take us to different directions but our destiny and fate we decide, like the acorn that knew the best place to land and sprout. some places feel more like home than others, I have felt that too. I was so touched reading about the boy you met who became your forever love. thank you for hosting this really lovely prompt, i am enjoying reading all the other writers and poets

  26. Funny, I had a boyfriend in ninth grade and we talked about getting married. Thank God we didn’t 😉 I enjoyed your memory and to continue that positive note my stepsister did meet and eventually marry her boyfriend from ninth grade. And they are still happily married. I used to wonder if I would have been a different person if I had grown up elsewhere than my little nearly unknown small town, but it difficult (especially at my age) to imagine being anyone but the person I am inside.

  28. Love and loss. I like that you said, “I always feel loved.” And you met Doug in 9th grade. Maybe I did know that before, but in this context it sounds awesome, both of my oldest grandsons in ninth grade. (I wonder what’s going on that I don’t know about.!)

    This is a lovely post; all of your commenters agree!

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