This weekend I more or less completed my move to Theresa’s place. I’ve been living in her basement since Saturday night. It’s a little disorienting because I’m in someone else’s house and have no real place of my own. The basement is pretty much my “room” for now, and I have my bed there. I’ve also got the office set up with a desk and my computers, so I’m starting to feel at home.
Moved the final aquarium last night (I’m down to 2 now). It was quite an ordeal because a 40 gallon tank with gravel, plants and some remaining water is big and heavy. I’m glad it’s done. I had one casualty. It was a bristlenose plecostomas, which has been with me pretty much from the beginning of my fishkeeping experiences. There was another aggressive, territorial pleco in the holding tank, which attacked it. A couple wounds plus the stress of the move was too much.
It’s really great being in my new home. Theresa is great, and I’m so thankful to have a partner through all this.
There is just too much that was bad about my old life. Too many bad memories and problems. This is just symbolic of the changes God has been making in my life the past few years. I used to think I’d cheated the system because I had lived life my own way for so long, and now I’m enjoying the benefits of the Christian life just like someone who has been faithful their whole life. It’s not true, though. There are definitely long lasting effects and scars from that way of life that I’m still healing from. Things don’t change over night. I’m sure God could change me overnight if he felt like it, but it’s the experience of working through the change that makes us better people. I also think it’s his nature to change us through experiences and other people rather than by just waving some holy magic wand. Real life is more complicated than Harry Potter.