Journey's End

We've been back in Australia for just over two months now. I'm trying to recall our first impressions upon coming home. It seems so long ago now, like we were never gone, like our epic journey never really happened. I know it really happened though, not just because we have a blog detailing the experience, not just because of the few items we brought home with us, like the kimono bought at the markets in Kyoto for Sophia, and the paper fan from Vancouver Chinatown, for Sage, but for the powerful feeling of change that has occurred within each of us.
We feel it and others see it. Our good friend Joy noticed the change in Sophia, "She looks so settled, so serene. It's in all the photos and I see it now in her face". It felt so good to recognize that this had indeed happened to Sophia. I realized that she had grown up a lot during the trip, but in a way which shows she is more at peace with herself and the world.
Friends invited us over for a BBQ not long after we arrived back, and commented to Brian that I seemed a lot more mellow than before. I'm sure that this kind of change would be true for almost anyone who's been on holiday for five months, but living out of a suitcase with two young kids in tow is not everyone's dream come true, I'm sure. I certainly felt very mellow for the first couple of weeks after we arrived. It was great to feel like a tourist in our hometown. We did all the touristy things that we never did while we lived here previously, like visit the glow worms in Natural Bridge, see a bee show at Honeyland in Currumbin, go for long walks along the beach almost every evening.
The feeling of being a tourist has gone, but what has remained that sustains me every day, is a feeling of peace, that life has an amazing way of working out, no matter what difficult times may occur. It has given me courage to try to live our life like we are still on holiday, enjoying it as much as we can, doing things that are good for us, and avoiding the things that are not.
We are bravely trying to live a different life from what we have fallen into before, right in the heart of suburbia. Of course it's a beautiful suburbia with the beach only five minutes walk away, and a couple of kilometres of beautiful walking paths to enjoy.

Brian has resisted the pull of the corporate world and its illusion of stable high income. He's trying to set things up differently for himself. I'm so proud of his courage.
I don't know how it will work out, but I've ventured into the world outside of home, by starting the food van business, and although it's bloody hard work, it's really satisfying. I'm a very physical person. Life in an office would be the end of me.
My French-Canadian midwife who helped with the birth of Sage told me when we returned that there's a saying in French, goes something like "travel makes a person'. I have to agree with the wisdom contained in the saying, but also add that the experience of travel is the kind of gift one receives, the effects of which last a lifetime and unravel in their own poetic way.

So, if we would do it all again, would we do it any differently? Maybe. To make it easier on ourselves, I'd say it would have been better to have someone house-sit for us, rather than clean and pack up everything at the same time as getting ready to leave. Having said that, the beauty of how we did what we did, was that we reduced our posessions right down to the bare minimum so it would all fit into one container and although sometimes painful, this can be such a liberating exercise. Trundling our stuff out of the container when we returned, after living with very few posessions for so long, made us think we could have culled a lot more than we did before we left too.

I think we have planted a seed in our kids. Not a week goes by now, where one of them doesn't suggest that we go on another trip. They constantly recall experiences to confirm with us in which country this or that happened. They remember details we have already forgotten.

I think that when possible, we'll be doing more travel in the future and I think we may make a trip to the heart of this great country next.