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A Bottle of Ground Cinnamon

I hate moving. It's like performing a massive spring-cleaning twice. I recently moved to larger accommodations and the fact that it WAS spring did not heighten the thrill of the effort for me one iota. My children were wonderful in the beginning, enthusiastically packing and carrying boxes. I had moving guys take the heavier stuff and they sympathized with the size of the rest of the job. Finally, everything was out and the old place cleaned for the new tenants. I felt a great sense of relief at a job well done. Until I got home to the new place and discovered the mutiny of the unpacking crew.

The task of unpacking is more interesting to me. Redecorating is fun. There is a temptation to say that those things look just fine in the box, if you just put the box on its side. But soon enough everything finds a new home and it starts to feel like "your" place. We've moved to a house large enough that I get my own bedroom again after having slept on the living room sofa bed for years. I enjoy saying that I'm going to MY room now. Little things excite me.

This morning, nearly two weeks installed at the new place, I realized that I was missing something. Apparently my need for this item is limited, as it took me two weeks to notice it's absence. Having been alerted to my urgent need for this bottle of ground cinnamon, I proceeded to search the entire house for it. At last, I found it in a nice little cluster of unpacked boxes huddling together in the furnace room. My heart soared as I resolved some of the deeper human mysteries with this profound find. For my investigation also unearthed stray socks and a television converter in the same spot.

Zoe Duff, her children, and their new home can be found in Victoria, British Columbia.