Franciscan Spirituality Center - The Move Marcia Bentley

Franciscan Spirituality Center
920 Market Street
La Crosse, WI 54601
608-791-5295

https://www.fscenter.org

Steve Spilde: Today, I am happy to welcome Marcia Bentley back to the podcast. Marcia is a friend, a colleague, and a fellow Spiritual Director. Today, I invited Marcia to talk about her recent move. I think people underestimate how much energy is involved in a move – physical, emotional, and spiritual. Marcia, can you tell us about your recent move and what triggered it?

Marcia Bentley: Good question, Steve, as always. What triggered it was that I had been thinking that as I’m approaching 70, I probably needed to find the place where I wanted to live the rest of my life. Whether it be short or long term, I didn’t know, but there also were some physical reasons. I have some arthritis, and it was becoming increasingly difficult for me to live where I was living in an apartment building where I had to carry things up and down the steps, shovel snow around my car – things like that that just had me thinking that I needed to start facing those situations and make some choices for myself.

Steve: Where did you move to?

Marcia: I moved from a two-story apartment with stairs to a condo building – I actually bought a condo – and this building has elevators and it has a parking garage. I don’t have to shovel snow anymore, and I can do elevators rather than carrying things on the steps. My body is already thanking me for that decision.

Steve: I’m sure a lot of people listening come from a variety of situations. They may not live alone, [and] they may not be 70, but yet the experience of moving is common to all of us – sooner or later, we end up moving. Moving is demanding in many ways. First of all, there are the physical demands. What was the most physically challenging aspect of the move for you?

Marcia: Physically, it was partly because of the physical challenges I was already experiencing that I decided to move. And then, I did a lot of the moving myself [and] I had to carry all these things down these steps, so it was like this kind of torture to my body in a very intense sort of way for a limited period of time. It reinforced my idea that I needed to do this, but boy, there were some days it was tough.

Steve: People are oftentimes prepared for the physical demands to move, and that’s why people hire movers. That’s why “Two Men and a Truck” is in business, so people can farm that out. People I think oftentimes are surprised by how tired they are during a move, and they chalk it up to all the packing and the moving of things. But I think there are also other things involved in that. Part of that is an emotional experience. I would guess you’ve had a surge of emotions. Part of it is positive emotions; you’re excited about the move. What excites you about this change?

Marcia: Whenever you decide you’re going to purchase something or make a change, I come up with a list of things I would really like to see. In this case, it was, what would be my requirements for a new apartment or a condo? I came up with a long list of things, and this new place that I found meets almost all of them. That was really exciting for me to just find the right place. As soon as I stepped into this condo when I was doing the showing with my realtor, I stepped in and I knew immediately this is the place I want to call home. It just felt comfortable and warm and very quiet, so there was that excitement of, I have found my space [and] this is what I’ve been waiting for, and just little things I’ve found since then besides being very quiet, which helps my life of prayer. It’s in a friendly building; I’ve met a number of my neighbors. One of my neighbors, when he saw me parking in a numbered parking space, yelled out, “You must have been the one who bought John’