"Home" and the saying "Home is where the heart is" means several things to me ...now.
Let's take a closer look at all this.
We (Waz and I) are Home. Home in New Zealand where we were born, grew up, were nurtured and where we nurtured our own...well, some of them.
Though I have left many different times in my life, I have returned many times too. The longer I am away the more I feel like a foreigner in the country of my birth.
Having lived outside of NZ for 28 years, I dont know that I feel that I 'belong' anywhere in particular. I am hoping this will change as we establish ourselves in our new home in France.
Waz didn't do the famous Kiwi 'OE' (Overseas Experience) in his early 20's, so what we are doing now is his big OE. Much of what we are doing and what we have done in the past 5 years has been driven by him. His quest to take advantage of all the opportunities on offer at this time of our lives, has taken us to some pretty amazing places. Not only that, we have both been outside of our comfort zones many times, with this only serving to make us more determined to keep ourselves 'on our toes' as it were, than ever.
Because of circumstances that were totally unanticipated, our lives together have been very much driven by serendipity, we feel.
We didnt know that at some stage we would be like a couple of snails, with our home literally on our backs...well, maybe under our feet...and floating. Being able to take our home with us, put down an anchor and call the marshes, an island, a bay or a dock 'home', has been an incredible experience.
When we didnt like the neighbors, we upped the anchor and moved on!
We are fortunate to have made fast friends (Boaters) with some who remain fast friends. People we didnt think would remain have put down roots on terra firma and become an anchor of sorts to us. We cherish their friendship and know that they will be there when we return. We hope they will take time in their retirement to visit our new anchored home and enjoy our hospitality as we have enjoyed theirs.
We dont have a good track record when it comes to staying 'home'. In the 7 years that I lived back in NZ, 2005 - 2012, I moved house three times (buying and selling each time). Waz was very much a part of the last house move, and it was one that we chose together. We lived there for three years before selling and moving to our floating home in the USA. We are hoping to make our new home in France one that we want to stay in for a very long time. Watch this space, I guess:)
So, why do we feel more 'at home' in France than we do in NZ? Or the USA?
That's a challenging question to answer, and I will start with the NZ one: The NZ real estate market is very over-priced (high) and it would take a large chunk of our retirement fund to buy a home here, and we would be forced to live well away from our families due to high prices in the city of Auckland, and north of that. The cost of living is outrageous, and we dont feel that we could afford to live here and have the quality of life that we want at this stage of our lives.
USA: Apart from the politics and the current political climate, we couldn't decide on a place that we felt we wanted to settle. Climate plays a large part in our decision, and coming from NZ which has a temperate climate, we did not thrive in the heat of Florida or the summers that most of the USA swelters in during the summer months. We dont want vast quantities of snow to battle each year and deep cold isnt on our list of must have's. There are many reasons not to settle permanently in the USA right now, and you will notice I'm not ruling it out at some other time....but I dont want to be too negative about it, so will stop there with the excuses.
After our family gathering today (Sunday), we took my youngest son home to the central city. We spent the day with him...or rather, he spent the day with us (saturday) and we enjoyed just hanging out together, doing some much needed shopping for him and having sweet treats in a café while we waited for our laundry to finish at the launderette next door.
Son and Waz discussing the various tools my son needed.
My brother had been fishing with his younger son over the weekend and he shared some of his catch with the greater family (smoked) and we were invited, having dropped our passengers off, to pick up some more fresh fish from his business, not far from our rental cottage. We came home and cooked the lovely fresh Snapper in butter, and ate that with salad and new potatoes. Yum! We have another meal's worth in the freezer:)
So, home! Let's address the 'heart' part of this issue, while I'm into the navel gazing...
As long as Waz and I are alive and kicking, our home will be wherever the other one is. We are happy with our own company and that of each other. We love being together 24/7/365, and have done pretty much for the past 12 years. If by any chance either one of us wasn't there (heaven forbid!) we have decided that we will carry on wherever we find ourselves. Putting down roots is an important part of our decision to relocate to France, and we already have a wide network of friends of all nationalities with whom we enjoy spending time there. We dont see that changing when the other is no longer around.
So, heart and home sound pretty good to us. We make a home wherever we are because that's what we do best. So I guess home can be anywhere. Some places are just more inviting than others:)
So, that completes the navel gazing for today. Enjoying the company of family is very much 'in the now', so we dont dwell on the 'what if's' of life, but stay in the moment with them. Our senior members are now 96 and 90, and we celebrate each day they are with us, and enjoy their company, however fleeting.
Waz is snoring beside me. He worked exceptionally hard today in a physical way, so no wonder he is pooped! Time to get my book out and read a few pages before turning in.
Night, night!
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