the Kiwi has landed . . .

After 17 years, I'm back home in Aotearoa / New Zealand for the foreseeable future - and it's grand.

The small town / small country characteristics that annoyed me as a teen and young adult - where everyone knows everybody else's business and everybody - now seem part and parcel of being accepted into a community and I've seen and learned enough in my travels to no longer be concerned at the opinions of those who don't know me.

My welcome home has been incredibly warm, despite the cold of the approaching winter. A dear friend has welcomed me into his home and it feels much like about 35 years ago when we also shared a house, tho with more occupants at the time. Much else feels the same - I accompanied my friend to a band rehearsal on Saturday where we barely stopped laughing (I suggested the band go on the road as a comedy act) and it felt just like the days of my misspent late teens.

Except, perhaps, that by 10:30 that night, we were sitting watching tv and drinking herbal tea while I crocheted - not quite the hard rocking days of yesteryears.

Sunday, we went to the the local market to check out what was on offer, then had lunch with the band's guitarist, and it feels very much that I am back where I belong.

This week, my job is to find a job, so I sent off applications for a few interesting possibilities this morning, before walking down to the banks of the Waikato River about five minutes away to practise yoga and exercise. It's incredible to have such peaceful beauty so close by.

I feel so much better that it's difficult to reconcile with how down and depressed I was in Hong Kong. Emotionally, I'm being gentle on myself and enjoying the peace of being at ease, which salves me physically and mentally also. Physically, I'm still recovering from my recent and prolonged illness, but I'm sleeping well and eating healthily and feeling better each day.

I plan to reconnect with whanau in the area this week and sort out random bureaucratic issues, and hope I'll have employment here before much longer. I also plan to start things in motion for the book project I've had in mind for some time.

The adventure of life is back on track . . .