In case you didn’t know, I’M MOVING TO NORTH CAROLINA TOMORROW.

Ahem.

Pardon the MAJOR minor freak out.

Anyway, ever had something on your mind that you want to blog or talk about, but you feel embarrassed? Or shameful? Or uncomfortable?

Yeah, me too.

Perhaps I can entice you to go check out a little guest post I wrote over at Shell’s place?

It might save my sanity.

Or not.

But, go read my words there. They are important ones (in my opinion, of course).

See y’all in sunny NC!

As the house begins to empty, they grow stronger.

Echoes of the memories that hover in all the rooms of this house that is becoming less ours and more theirs every moment.

The corner of the kitchen where Casey proposed, and the floor that we laid on minutes later – laughing and dreaming.

The kitchen table where Monday night dinners with Stacey were eaten and many games of Heroclix, Yahtzee, and Taboo were played.

The bedroom that was green, and then blue, and then beige. As it went from his, to ours, and now to theirs.

The bathroom drawer that hid our one and only positive pregnancy test for months after we had already lost our baby, until I was strong enough to throw it away.

The deck where many starry nights have been witnessed, enjoyed, and cherished.

My eyes are often teary these past few days as each belonging is put in a box, each particle of dust gets swept away and every memory packed tightly in my mind, my heart, my body.

This house is part of our history, our story – us.

But it’s time for it to be part of their history.

In days, just a few moments really, its front door will simultaneously open to the next chapter of their lives, and close this chapter of ours.

We are in the midst of a lot of goodbyes in our lives right now.

I have told many of my clients that I am leaving, with mixed emotions (from them and me).

I often wonder what they’ll tell their next therapist when he or she asks “what kinds of things did you do with Jenn?”

I suspect lots of them will say “we played games!” What they don’t know is that they learn best through games. That what they really learned in that game of chess or Yahtzee is how to finish what you start, how to be a graceful winner, how to try again when you lose, how to take turns, how to anticipate what others are going to do, how to predict consequences of your actions, how to take chances.

Some might say, “we drew pictures and colored!” What they don’t know is that through art, kids express their feelings and emotions. A dark day may be expressed through black scribbles or rain clouds. Secrets and life stories can be told through art when the right part of your brain takes over and leaves logic behind.

Other kids might say “we pretended we were other people!” because what they don’t know is that through role playing kids can learn how to react in social situations, how to initiate conversation, how to increase their self esteem, how to have hard conversations, how to fit in just the right amount while still being who they are.

My adult clients will probably say “we just talked,” even though what they don’t know is that they entered a healthy therapeutic relationships with boundaries and expectations that they may not know or experience in many of their other relationships. They were held accountable, they were challenged, and most of all – they were supported and validated. If I’ve been doing my job right they felt valued and important, because they are.

There are so many things in “therapy” that we teach, not through a long lecture where kids or adults are forced to listen to concepts they don’t care about or don’t understand – but through how we interact with them. The tools we create to support them.

So, their next therapist might think “wow, all she did was color, play games and talk?” But if they’re any good at all, they will hear what my clients are not saying – they will pay attention to they things my clients learned without even knowing it.