Novices on the move.

The guys who took vows last Sunday aren't the only Loyola House novices who are moving. Among many other chores this week, the new secundi (including yours truly) moved into new rooms in the novitiate. Switching rooms at some point during the novitiate is an old custom; at Loyola House we make the move once a year, though I'm told that some houses do it more frequently. Carting all my clothes, books and miscellaneous effects up the stairs and rearranging them in a new space was fairly exhausting, but I'm pleased with the results. My new room looks out on the lush green field beside the novitiate, and being on a second floor corridor with relatively little foot traffic gives me much more quiet and privacy than my old room on the first floor. The decor of my new room is so far sparse but, I think, tasteful: the light blue walls are bare except for a crucifix and a nicely-framed copy of the Theotokos of Vladimir, an icon I also have above my bed at home. I think it's safe to say I've already gotten used to the space, though getting used to its location in the house is another thing altogether - being on the second floor rather than the first means, among other things, that I'll be going up and down the stairs a lot more often than I did before. That shouldn't be a problem - if anything, I'll benefit from the extra exercise. A much larger adjustment will be getting used to living on the west side of the corridor instead of the east. In my old room, which looked east, I could usually count on early morning sunlight to wake me up sometime before my alarm clock had a chance to do its job. Facing westward in my new room, I have yet to wake up before my alarm. Granted, I've only been in this room two days, and things could definitely change over time. As I wrote above, I'm very pleased with the move, and reflecting on the ways in which being in a new space changes the mundane details of my daily life only gives me added cause for thanksgiving. AMDG.