Unexpected joys and regaining of health

It's only been a few days since I last blogged, but I'm feeling quite a bit better. Which is very good, especially considering all that I've ended up doing over the weekend. 

One very large tree at the park on Saturday: an Indian
Banyan. Obviously not all the trees in the park 
were native! My friends and I were imagining our kids
climbing in this tree when they were younger (and
probably even now).

On Saturday I spent several hours in a native-tree park with two of my best friends. It was delightful weather and fantastic company. The evening was also busy as my son and I socialised with our hosts over pizza and a documentary about the Thai soccer team rescue, followed by our usual weekend family video call.

And Sunday also ended up being very social. At 8.30 am I went to church with my two oldest sons, then talked to various people I knew there, some I first met as a child. The church now runs two services on a Sunday morning, to accommodate the restrictions the government had at one point for COVID, and so you can only talk inside after the 8.30 service for an hour before you have to leave. I ended up talking with an acquaintance who is an illustrator and author. After it was clear we needed to vacate the church building we progressed on to coffee at a nearby cafe, talking about writing, editing, writing retreats, creative process, etc. It was an unexpected delight, and one that has sparked some positive ideas and connections for the future. 

I then gathered my sons and we went for a Korean lunch in the home of a retired missionary; I first met her as a child when she came and taught my Sunday school class about Korea. We've stayed in touch all these years and it's wonderful that our eldest is now in the same church as her. She loves young people and enjoys inviting them round to her house, so our son isn't a stranger to having lunch with this lady.

After that we went back to where my middle son and I have been living and packed up our stuff. From there I took him to move in with his big brother. And I drove 30 minutes away to a friend's house, which is a real blessing to me at the end of this long period of living out of suitcases. These are our seventh abodes since mid-June, and we're a little travel weary! This is just for ten days and then we'll head to a hotel near the airport for our last night (hopefully) before flying back to Japan.

So, our sojourn in Australia is drawing to a close. We've still got a couple of appointments to take care of and I'm planning to spend time with my parents and sisters on Saturday. On Sunday I say see-you-next-year to the folk at our home church. And in the meantime I'm continuing to work at staying on top of the usual editing/managing/writing responsibilities I have for the Japan field, and thankfully I'm feeling a lot more able to do that this week. 

I came across the term "knowledge worker" yesterday while editing. It's the first time I've heard of that classification. And what I do fits it very well. My job is to "think for a living". I think it's a helpful term to understand some aspects of what I do. It was encouraging to hear my writing friend say on Sunday that recently, for some reason, she didn't have the headspace to cope with the larger editing tasks that her editor had asked her to do on her latest book manuscript. I often feel like that, only able to approach some of the harder editing tasks I have when I'm "in the right headspace". This month it's been challenging to try to push through getting editing work done while being below par health-wise. If you're a "knowledge worker" you have to be well enough for your brain to function at a higher level than if you're just doing relatively mundane tasks, like, say (for me), cooking a simple meal, or answering basic emails.

Back in March, I wrote this about one of the reasons we were coming to Australia at this time:

I'll stay longer in Australia with our middle son to do some reconnaissance for his future. He's still deciding about what his next steps are, and I hope that an un-hurried period in Australia as a young adult will help him consider what he might like to do next. Last time he was there he was 16, and in a period of high anxiety and stress at school, so it's really hard for him to imagine what life in an English speaking country might be like as an independent adult. 

It's hard to judge how well this reconnaissance has gone. But I think we'll be reaping the benefits over the coming year as we plan to relocate both our youngest sons more permanently in Australia. We've certainly been able to give them both plenty of "this is what it's like to be an adult or older teen" experiences. It's quite remarkable to do something they're familiar with in Japan, like going to the dentist, and see them experience the remarkable difference when they do it in Australia. Language makes a huge difference, and culture does too.

I'm heading into a more intense period of "transitionitis" again over the coming nine days, but hopefully not too bad, especially as we know that we're heading back "home" and into a familiar routine. And it's only one plane and two countries, not three and three! Hopefully I'll find some headspace to write here next week before I fly.