Hi everyone. Today we did the bulk of our move to our new home. For those who haven't followed part 1 and part 2, this move I have been treating as a little psychological experiment for myself in terms of how I can go about de-escalating the level of stress in my life.
To achieve this, we booked some removalists this time. Normally I'd be all over a relocation like a diabetic chipmunk on a sugar coated almond, opting to burn 3 days or so with trip after trip in our enclosed horse float rather than hire muscle.
I'm a man after all right? I shouldn't need any assistance dealing with my own things 💪
Anyway, while trying to convince myself I hadn't sacrificed any masculinity, I watched the truck drive down our driveway this morning. I was so happy when two young and friendly Kiwis jumped out of the truck when it pulled up. I really like Kiwis, they're good fun to be around in my experience.
Allowing myself to accept the help of a removalist service rather than taking on the physial and mental burden myself was an exercise in letting go and allowing life to happen as I've been previously blogging about.
Then came the worry about how well our possessions would be handled. I am usually so careful with my things so as not to damage or scratch them. I was thinking I'd be more worried than a school boy with a busted condom watching someone else taking less care with my gear than I would.
I was surprised at my ability today to just let it all happen. The guys did a good job and one of the removalist chaps even played a prank on me. Funny bugger. The whole experience was unexpectedly enjoyable.
I couldn't believe it when we had the whole house packed, moved, and basically kind of in position at the new house in three hours. 🏡 This has got to be the most enjoyable and fast move I've ever done and I think my mental prep really helped achieve this.
Anyway, today we also had a friend of ours along to help us with moving the little stuff too. We shared some things as you tend to do when you're working together with someone and during the course of this our friend admitted that they had been suicidal in the recent past, even going into some detail about how close they were do executing the plan so to speak. 😲
This is quite a humbling thing to hear if you have never been in this situation before. Thankfully we share a very open relationship with this individual and, importantly, a completely judgement free one.
Now we found this admission to be a real vote of confidence in us as we have not known this friend for all that long. We felt trusted and privileged that this person felt comfortable enough to share something that is generally taboo and that we could be a part of their support network. Something we are more than happy to do.
So often it's the case, as I've learnt from suicide awareness training in the army, that you can never really profile an individual for such a thing. Sufferers are often the cheeriest people and our helper today is a good example of this.
My wife has studied psychology at a university level and I am an autodidact in the field with a little formal training so we felt well placed to handle this situation and will be helping our friend (who is already in couselling) further.
Boy oh boy you never know what a day will bring!
