Ten years ago today, Mrs Hills and I left Australia. It was the kind of move you can only really make once, given the recklessness of it – quit your jobs, sell your stuff, buy one way ticket, and jump, unemployed, into the great unknown.
And what a ride it’s been. We’ve lived in the UK, UAE, and even Jordan for a bit. We managed to bring two happy boys into the world! One with a confused hybrid accent and one who is still testing out syllables. Both are true delights.
We kept moving forward, even when the map was blank, and even when it warned us that “here be dragons” (there were, indeed, sometimes dragons. Most were slain; we reached an uneasy truce with others).
The seasons change and so have we – a desire for flexibility has given way to the joy of domestic rhythms; the joy of the quick-turn problem-solve has given way to longer horizons. We’ve learned the value of showing up – and being showed up for.
There have been good years and objectively rubbish years, along with years of plenty and years of scarce, supplemented by times of mourning and times of dancing (the dancing was not me).
In all, there has been “a time for everything”, as ancient wisdom puts it.
What of the next ten? Who knows! Lots of love, books, hugs and hopefully marginally less dancing (or, at the very least, less Chicken Banana)
James Hills Writes 