Bags are packed... again

And here I am once again; Bags packed and ready to move to a new place to live. It’s odd when I think that I lived in the same house for 20 years, the same town in which I was born, went to the same school for ten years. After a life that was built on such constancy, where change was something foreign to me I now find that moving and changing is as familiar to me as waking up each morning. In the past five years I have lived in twenty different houses (lived here is a vague term, I mean is being in the same place for a few weeks living? Hmmmm; I guess I define ‘living’ in a place as being there long enough to un pack you bags, putting things in drawers, as opposed to spreading things across the ground near my bed [you know you loved it Nick!]). I have been to over twenty countries and now…. Off to Villa 88, Street 6B, Al Bada’a, Dubai, UAE, somewhere where I plan to live for the next three months at least.

I often think back to why I have made change such an important part of my life. I mean I remember when I lived at 58 Fairloch Ave, Farmborough Hts, NSW, 2526, Australia, ph: 42 71 5242… I never really wanted to leave that sanctuary. It really was a perfect place for me. A largish house, with a bus route on the street, access to nature and places for adventure and excitement, railway tracks, parks, shops, waterfalls, football fields, and my mates, all within walking distance. And now? Wow, my closest friend is somewhere in Poland, my love in Canada, a few mates in the UK, Europe and my closest friends and family thousands of miles away in Australia. It is amazing how things can change once you decide to move on….

And it is funny you know. As it was my sister, Jess who urged me to move out of home in 2002. Well urged is probably the wrong term, more like insisted that I move out, she claimed that ‘independence’ was a very important thing… And all I wanted to think about at the time is if I would be financially worse off for the move out of home… Well after a few reviews of the social security legislation in Australia at the time and some consultation with my parents I managed to organise the situation so that I would be no financially worse off for moving and I would be closer to the beach and uni and yes… Independence would be that much closer to being a reality in my life.

So it was a year out of home in Wollongong to start defining my independence and the beginning of finding out how I wanted to live my life. … and the movement kept increasing from there….

So as I look over to the bags all packed once again I smile and feel that I have achieved at least some of what I set out to do. I mean everything material in my world in a few bags; and to tell you the truth even what I have there is a bit excessive. I no longer define my security by what I own, what I can see, touch and cover myself with. Now it is more about a perception, an understanding in my mind. An understanding that is beginning to see how the world works, a perception that is beginning to help me not need things to make my life progress rather just myself and how I approach situations as they face me. I guess I have learnt that it is about your mind, your soul and even more importantly those you love that help your life progress. Knowing that I have a true love I can contact and whom I will soon be with, a family I can call at anytime, even four in their am, and talk about anything, and friends about the globe I can talk with anytime, thanks to the net, that gift of modern technology that has allowed me to travel without feeling so far from those I love. This network of relationships is what keeps me safe a secure, no longer four walls and a roof in suburbia….

Bags packed, off I go. But it is no longer a road I walk unknowing nor alone. I maybe far from my loved ones but they are close to my heart and their wisdom rides with me on this next journey, I can only hope that soon they will be near me in the flesh also.....