A different journey

My only fridge magnet…

When you’re planning your next trip, you usually start with your beginning and end dates.

You hope for adventures and experiences to write home about; to be inspired, surprised and challenged.

But you know it’s a finite thing, and you’ll be back home to the familiar – back to the comfort zone, the stress zone or a bit of both and trying to hold onto that holiday feeling.

What you hope for is a different perspective and life changing experiences…

Moving house, from inner city living to a small coastal town as we’ll be doing next month, is a different journey.

And (to really mix my metaphors) even if it is a taste test rather than the place we intend to put down permanent roots, there’s that same breathtaking moment you get when any journey begins and you don’t really know what’s ahead.

One thing we know is that we’re not going to be in our comfort zone any time soon, and we’re unlikely to return to this city we’ve called home for 30 years – except to visit our kids, grandies and friends, and to work.

Among the new experiences will be the one and a half hour commute to meet with our city clients, instead of being there in the usual five minutes. But we’re thinking that arriving home at the beach after work will be incentive enough…

Like any journey, it’s overwhelming and exciting at the same time. We know the path won’t all be easy and smooth – if it was there’d be no stories to tell.

And stories, as some wise person said, are the difference between being a tourist and a traveller.