Taking Leave of Your Home: Moving in the Peace of Christ
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About this ebook
Chapter 1 offers suggestions on how to take leave of one's home slowly. Chapter 2 presents occasions when one must quickly take leave of a home because of poor health, a health emergency, age, the death of a spouse, finances, a job transfer, etc. Because nature can precipitate a move, chapter 3 offers suggestions for taking leave of a home when one has been faced with such a disaster as a tornado, a flood, an earthquake, a fire, etc. Chapter 4 presents a short prayer service to be held on moving day.
For every one of the entries a few verses of a Scripture text that is appropriate for the topic under consideration are given. A reflection follows. The reflection is followed by an activity, which involves the members of a family in some way. A prayer concludes the exercise.
Mark G. Boyer
Mark G. Boyer, a well-known spiritual master, has been writing books on biblical, liturgical, and devotional spirituality for over fifty years. He has authored seventy previous books, including two books of history and one novel. His work prompts the reader to recognize the divine in everyday life. This is his thirtieth Wipf and Stock title.
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Taking Leave of Your Home - Mark G. Boyer
Taking Leave of Your Home
Moving in the Peace of Christ
Mark G. Boyer
8681.pngTaking Leave of Your Home
Moving in the Peace of Christ
Copyright © 2016 Mark G. Boyer. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
Wipf & Stock
An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3
Eugene, OR 97401
www.wipfandstock.com
paperback isbn: 978-1-4982-9799-8
hardcover isbn: 978-1-4982-9801-8
ebook isbn: 978-1-4982-9800-1
Manufactured in the U.S.A. September 19, 2016
The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition copyright (c) 1993 and 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of the Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Introduction
Chapter 1: Slowly Taking Leave of One’s Home
The Family Room
The Dining Room
The Kitchen
The Living Room
The Master Bedroom
The Child(ren)’s Bedroom(s)
The Guest Room
The Den
The Bathroom
The Garage
The Sunroom
Going Away to College
Chapter 2: Quickly Taking Leave of One’s Home
Poor Health
Health Emergency
Age
Sudden Death of a Spouse
Financial Reasons
Job Transfer
Alone and Can’t Care for Self
When One Can’t Go Back Home
Armed Forces Call or Enlistment
Chapter 3: Taking Leave of One’s Home after a Disaster
Tornado/Wind
Flood
Earthquake
Fire
Snow/Ice/Hail/Avalanche
Chapter 4: Taking Leave of the Home on Moving Day
Introduction
Reading
Psalm Response
Intercessions
Our Father
Concluding Prayer
Dismissal
Dedicated to the Members of my LIMEX Group
1997—2000
William Bishop
Melissa Bosso
Nancy Derryberry
Joan Keiser
Cyndi (Love) Berry
Clarence McKay
Rebecca Pruitt
Lucy Synk
Introduction
We are pilgrims on a journey. And for many of us that means we will leave our home and move to another one at least once during our lifetime pilgrimage. While we have many rituals for entering and blessing a new home, we have little or nothing for taking leave of the place we have called home for years or months. This book is a resource for taking leave of a home, no matter if it has to be done quickly, is caused by some kind of disaster, or can be done slowly over a period of weeks.
Taking leave of a home resembles taking leave of a deceased family member or friend. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross has identified five stages that people pass through in taking leave of their lives: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Later, she concluded that the living pass through the same stages in taking leave of the deceased. Likewise, when moving from one home to another, family members pass through the same stages.
First, they deny that the move will have to be made. Then, they get angry at having to sort through and box up everything in preparation for the move. Bargaining enters in when some family members want to stay behind and finish a school year, complete a project, or see an activity to its conclusion. Depression enters in as family members face the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual work of taking leave of their home. Finally, all accept that they will have to move and that there is nothing to do but enter into the process.
Charles Corr, Clyde Nabe, and Donna Corr offer a task-based approach for coping with dying which can easily be applied to leaving one’s home and moving to another. They isolate four primary areas of task work that must be done based on the four dimensions of the life of a human being: the physical, the psychological, the social, and the spiritual.
Applying their task-based approach to moving, we see that the physical tasks of leave-taking include sorting through everything a family owns, boxing everything, and maybe in this day of rent-a-moving-van even physically carrying every boxed item and piece of furniture out of the old home and into the new one. The psychological task involves leaving the security, the familiarity, and the emotions attached to one’s home and embracing the insecurity, the unfamiliarity, and the lack of any emotional attachment yet to the new home. Leaving behind friends and family and a church community and other groups to which family members belong comprises the work of the social task, which will not be completed until the move is finished and memberships in new communities are established. The work of the spiritual task, which is not the same as church or religion, consists of establishing the new home as a place of meaning for the family, a place where members are connected to each other, and a place of transcendence where people find hope and are able to