I don’t.

Recent changes in my life have not been restful at all.

You’d think that relocating your writing space would be a simple thing. Just pick up your desk and computer and shift them eastward. The undertaking becomes a bit more complex when you shift them a few kilometres east.

And when you must also relocate your sofas, kitchen, cars, kayaks, bicycles, and eleven years of things-you-cannot-remember-why-you-bought, the undertaking becomes physical exercise. It gets your heartrate into the fat-burning zone.

My husband and I are conscious of the need to keep our brains active and fit, so we downsized dramatically. Our brains worked hard solving storage issues, calculating what to put into long-term storage, what to toss, what to keep.

Perhaps fat-burning exercise is not enough for you? If you prefer a cardiovascular workout, simply sort, purge, pack, and move your belongings in 17 days. And make sure that you have at least two flights of stairs in the house, which you must ascend and descend during your exercise regime.  Quickly now, because you have only 17 days.  Tell yourself you can relax on the other side of the move.

Go ahead, tell yourself that. Soon enough, as you stand in the midst of boxes in your much smaller space, you will realize that you lied. There’s no relaxing on the other side. Now you must spend three weeks unpacking, sorting, purging some more, solving new storage issues, and reassembling furniture.

And searching. For lost hardward for the bed frame, shelf supports for the bookshelves, that box you marked “Everything important”. And underwear.

So, I don’t know about the adage that change is as good as a rest. The best I can say, at the moment, is that it can give your body and brain a workout. And if I were to look at change in a positive light, rather than whining, I’d say that’s a benefit.

One more benefit:

This is the view from my new writing space – tough, hey?