Re-entry
It’s been brilliant to be away but it’s good to be home. I feel energized, content, and grateful.
Now that I'm back from my trip to Japan and settling back into my New Zealand routine, I've been thinking and reflecting upon my time away.
I have noticed feeling so much more energized, content, thrilled and grateful since returning. My experience in Japan was such an interesting, diverse and engaging time that went almost exactly to plan, apart from the typhoon that threw things slightly awry halfway through.
I managed to catch up with people who I find interesting and have had previous relationships with, and it was so satisfying to be able to meet them again and to continue those relationships on.
The difference between urban settings, rural cultural history, the extraordinary natural environment, and the magnificence of the Japanese public transport system all contributed to my whizzing around the country but having enough time to engage with all of these different experiences in fulfilling ways.
It really has been the difference in experience culturally, with just the sheer number of people, but also the magnificent and satisfying food that I ate along the way that has been such an enriching time for me.
And that's what I think that I needed. I needed that difference but also the familiarity, somewhere that I have been before that I was missing, somewhere that felt completely different, yet familiar also in a way that I longed for.
And it did not disappoint, it exceeded my expectations. And I guess partly why I took this mission on, why I wanted to do this, was that I noticed in myself a gap between what I advised others to do and how I was living my own life.
Now, negotiating this as a father, as a husband, as someone who has responsibilities, was not exactly challenging because I have a very understanding family, but it took some sacrifice from others - especially my darling wife - to enable me to do this, which I appreciate from the bottom of my heart.
And I hope that I will be able to give of myself in order to ensure that all of my family's needs are met as well. But I don't think it takes away from our family life, I think it only adds to it. The acknowledgement of our individual needs as well as our collective needs, and keeping those in balance, is something that I've been thinking about, and I think that we think about as a family, and on reflection I would encourage others to do too.
It's not been without challenges, returning back to New Zealand. Of course, when I hit my ‘on’ button for my desktop Mac it failed to boot, and after spending best part of an evening and half the following day trying to rescue it myself, I admitted that I needed external assistance. So it's now in to the repair shop and I'm hoping that they'll at least be able to take data off the failing hard drive such that I can think about what needs to happen next.
And although this is somewhat challenging and upsetting, I think I've managed to get past that, and to really zoom out and think about the experience that I've just gone through, and how I'm going to use that experience in my day-to-day life.
It's been brilliant, but it's good to be home too.
Seems like an amazing trip - just the kind of tripwire you needed to start afresh.