New Year, New Goals

I currently live over 600 miles away from my family, but I miss my home town and would love to move back. My husband really loves the area too and we can see ourselves being very happy there. One of my concerns moving to the area however would be how my parents/family would handle finding out that we're Pagan. To this point I haven't told my family because I was afraid they'd freak out and disown me, but I'm starting to feel that I can't let my fears control me. Hopefully we'll be able to move 2-3 years from now. If my family ends up to not be accepting and understanding I should know before making such a major and expensive move. And if they end up being cool about everything, then it would put my mind at ease and make my husband and I feel even better about moving.

I want to be able to tell my family by the end of the year. Honestly, putting a time line out like this is terrifying to me. It makes me wonder if this last (wonderful) Christmas we spent with them will be the last. And that just makes me sad. But it needs to be done. If my family ends up being the kind of people who won't be accepting and tolerant of other beliefs then I wouldn't want them to be in my life anyway.

I need a plan though, I need to figure this out from as many angles as I can and then sometime in December of 2010 I can let the cat out of the bag.

Here are my goals (I'll be going over each point in depth in future blogs):
Obstacles:
i. My family's Christian beliefs.
ii. My family's tendency to only associate with other people sharing their beliefs.
iii. My fears/possible misconceptions.
What I Believe:
i. I know what I believe, but I want to write it down and be 100% confident in my ability to convey it clearly and concisely.
How to Tell Them:
i. I'm not sure telling them in person is really the best plan, when I've had to share bad news with them before I've done it in emails. I need to thoroughly consider my options and make sure I'm making the best choice.


Phew! Well, I think it's a good start. For now, at least, I can think of it being an entire year away.