Perspective ...

It's easy to get wrapped up and overwhelmed as a family entering global transition.

I've got piles and shopping lists galore. I have been running all over our coastal city collecting "last minute" furniture, textiles, and Chinese trinkets. Having art framed and pictures developed.

Part of the stress, I realize, simply comes from the volume of stuff we own.

Stuff.

Last week the two families who sweep our sidewalks and mop the common areas of our apartment building, the families that have been habiting an unheated, unconditioned, un-leased garage in our complex, were packing up. It's not uncommon for migrants to move on, and often quickly, from one place to the next. But the leisurely way they were sorting their things suggested to me they weren't going far.

After asking them what was up, I learned that they had been told to relocate to the underground parking garage under our complex. Two couples with one child each now reside in the damp, dark and moldy concrete bowels several stories underground. They transported all their possessions in an industrial size trash bin (the same one I drop my daily trash bag in).

Kinda puts my "predicament" in perspective.