Our entire world is about to be turned upside down, literally. Summer will be winter. There will be a new set of stars in the sky. Temperature and distance are measured in a different metric and we’ll have to master driving on the opposite side of the road. We are moving to New Zealand.
There are so many conflicting emotions within us both. For me, there is excitement mixed with fear and dread. I dread the tasks that lie before us and fear that we’re making a terrible mistake. But I am excited as well. Excited to see what it feels like to spend an extended time in a country that is not my own. Excited to explore new places. Excited to see who I am there. And even excited to be a witness to the crazy weather of Wellington, the city that will be our new home.
Flights are purchased and the visa application process has begun. There is much sorting and purging ahead of us. It is a clean slate, a chance to cut away the remaining excess of the possessions we have clung to since leaving our full-time home in Asheville three years ago. It is an opportunity to start again.
We’ve been out of work and out of an apartment for two weeks now. The car is littered with random shoes, bits of recycling that need to find a home, and pieces of clothing tossed into the back seat while speeding down the freeway as the cool mornings give way to warm spring afternoons. The road thus far has led from Chattanooga to Asheville, Nashville, Huntsville, Sewanee, and back again to Asheville. Soon, the wheels of the Matrix will turn north towards Philadelphia. We don’t know where or when we will have a place to call home again. We are living in the unknown.
Another period of uncertainty has begun. Mary just finished her assignment in Chattanooga and we vacate our apartment this weekend. Then we will face the choice of too many choices and no good criteria for deciding how to pick one. This feels like familiar terrain to us at this point, but that makes it no less difficult to navigate.