Relationships

Countdown New Zealand Day 3

06/03/2020 by John Leave a Comment

This is a series of posts that will log some of my thoughts in the month leading up to my moving back to New Zealand.

These transpacific moves are wearing me out. I hope this is the last one for awhile. Or forever. I’d like to say more assuredly that it is, but there are no guarantees in life.

I look forward to New Zealand’s peaceful shores. I look forward to smiling at people without a mask on. I look forward to doing the work to make Wellington feel like home.

But I also want to stay connected to my people here. This is something I have not done well during my life. I just forget. And then wish that I hadn’t forgotten. And then I remember but decide that I am too tired or that they must be too tired and that tomorrow would probably be a better time. And then I forget again. I want to be a better friend. I want to not forget.

Countdown New Zealand Day 8

05/29/2020 by John Leave a Comment

This is a series of posts that will log some of my thoughts in the month leading up to my moving back to New Zealand.

Today we left the biggest house we’ve ever lived in to begin our move back into a tiny apartment. I fear that the downsizing will come as quite a shock, even though we’ve lived there before and should know what we’re getting ourselves into. But after spending two weeks quarantined in a hotel room, perhaps our two room flat with its big views and access to hills and beaches only minutes away won’t feel so small after all.

The moving boxes left yesterday. All eight of them. I have no idea where their contents will go once we see them three or four months from now. Fortunately, that’s a problem for another day.

During the past few days as we’ve been squeezing items into boxes and duffle bags, we’ve also been trying to squeeze in time with the people we love. But there is never enough of it. It is such a waste to have to spend so much time dealing with stuff that there is not enough left over for people. This is another one of those repeating patterns in my life, one that I’d like to break.

Countdown New Zealand Day 21

05/16/2020 by John Leave a Comment

This is a series of posts that will log some of my thoughts in the month leading up to my moving back to New Zealand.

The Red Bridge in Hot Springs North Carolina

It feels like we’ve reached the beginning of the end of our time back in the States. Mary and I spent last night with some of our dearest friends in Hot Springs, North Carolina. We both left this afternoon feeling sad, but then we realized it was okay because sadness is just one of the many facets of love.