or: Sunday Sleep-In was a Sunday Think-In

It’s my last Sunday in HK and my handyman finally finished yesterday. I scheduled myself that I didn’t need to rush for anything this morning as my aim was to stay in bed and appreciate my place.

It’s been great!

Sitting here with my cup of coffee and looking around my apartment, my eyes fall on various objects and my mind wanders. 

My feelings are all over the place.

I look at my art collected from my travels and think about all the people I’ve met, the family I’ve met for the first time and the people I’ve been able to visit who I met elsewhere.

I’ve thought about my first solo trip and how that launched me into doing others and led me to continue with diving. 

I’ve thought about what led to that first solo trip and while I never thought I’d find myself in that situation, I’m now pleased that I did.

I can draw a direct line from a relationship breakdown to now being relocating to the other side of the world, back to my original hemisphere and an entirely different career.

I’ve been thinking of freedom, choices and options.

I’ve thought about my furniture. A mix of bright colours and various types of wood. Some modern, some Chinese, some Japanese and an IKEA wardrobe yet somehow it all seems to go together. I remember where I bought each piece and who happened to be with me when we came upon the most comfortable bar stools in the history of the world, where I found my writing desk and while I was paying, my shopping buddy that day spotted a great multi-coloured  chair, testing couches to be able to lie flat (this is a key requirement!) and so on.

How light my place is with the blinds open even though today is overcast.

How I still have more things I don’t need.

The two companies and various roles I’ve had since I’ve being here. All the things I learnt from these and the people I worked with along the way.

My neighbourhood and the people here, those that work at the restaurants on my street who know me so well they give me and who I’m with free drinks. Not always alcoholic. Sometimes it’s coffee! 

The changes I’ve had in my life over this time and how it’s led to where I am now. How having new freedom and not knowing what to do with it, the best thing for me to do is to travel. To stay still and make no changes when the dust settles makes no sense for me. It means circumstances have changed and I’m not taking advantage of any new opportunity that would lead to. 

To think about doing something different that I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.

To stretch myself.

Travel helps me in various ways. To be somewhere else gives me a fresh perspective and takes away the daily constraints of a routine (I don’t have to be in a new country to do this, a new place is fine too). It’s a new one instead and in that is where I find it easier to do something different since I’m already away from everything that is familiar. It’s not like I sit around thinking about this as I’m traveling, it’s the new surroundings and people that seem to present me with opportunities I hadn’t considered before or even recognised. 

It sometimes builds on the reading I’m doing at the time or some books I’ve already read. Then I write… 

Travel is also great for it’s own sake. To experience new and different cultures, perspectives, architecture, food. I could go on about travel all day. And all night. And probably all the next day too.

And then I’m back to thinking about travel and people.

I’m fortunate to have met so many great people over these years (as well as before!) from work, from travel, from just having a chat with random strangers in the street or at restaurants. 

I’m also fortunate to be in the situation now where I can change country again. To have the freedom to be able to move and explore the world as readily as I do is  one I worked hard to have, needed a loss to really embrace it, and one that I now enjoy and appreciate.

As I’m typing this, I have experienced a barrage of emotions.

I’ve laughed and I’ve cried.  

I’ve given you a small piece of my travel philosophy and the way I see the world.

And then I think about my favourite quote:

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

Thanks Oscar Wilde. 

I will continue to live.

 

Thanks to The Commodores for the title to this post.