So, I have visited all the libraries within a ten mile radius of my new home in Fairfax, VA. I can travel the Metro into Washington DC, attend mass at the Basilica and be inspired by the words at the Jefferson Memorial – all while admiring the cherry blossoms.

Change can be a good thing. It keeps us from being complacent. Big changes help us appreciate the important things and people in our lives. OK, OK…but too many changes at once can make a person crazy!

I moved last week from midwest Toledo, OH to Northern Virginia…just this close to Washington DC. I handled the move (3 cars, 3 people and 1 houseful of stuff!) I’m handling the traffic, the being lost every time I get in the car, the townhouse living, and missing my students, friends, family and job. It’s the boxes and the new appliances that are sending me over the edge. I have boxes up to the ceiling and an oven that doesn’t know if it wants to be a convection oven or a conventional oven with three timers (…do I need three timers on my oven?) When the toilet leaked over in the basement and the front closet door fell off in my hands today…well, there were tears!

But luckily it is Lent. So, good Catholics look for a Fish Fry on Fridays. There is a wonderful Irish Pub in Fairfax, VA called The Auld Shabeen – with a Fish fry, good Irish beer and tonight the Irish music by Celtic Fusion fed my soul. Maybe I’ll stay another week.

Reading is a gift to me. It can save me (and often does) from despair. My life is in major upheaval at the moment – packing a house, moving trucks and job searching…need I say more? But this weekend I had a great reading experience, so I feel a little better about things in general.

Bod shrugged. “So?” he said. “It’s only death. I mean, all of my best friends are dead.”

“Yes.” Silas hesitated. “They are….”

Bod (Nobody Owens) and Silas talk of life and death in Neil Gaiman’s Newberry Award winning book The Graveyard Book. Seemingly a retelling of the Jungle Book story – though, set in a graveyard. How does Gaiman think of these things? Genius.

“…And they are for the most part, done with the world. You are not. You’re alive, Bod. That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you change the world, the world will change. Potential. Once you’re dead, it’s gone. Over. You’ve made what you’ve made, dreamed your dream, written your name. You may be buried here, you may even walk. But that potential is finished.”

I am gently reminded..life is full of potential.