The name of this blog came to me a few years ago while I was driving my car up the hills to our home. Singing along with one of my (then) brand new songs, those words from the chorus caught my attention in a way that hadn’t happened while I was writing them. “Pausing For Breath” started as a podcast in which I would attempt to take a break from my neverending work and talk about stuff. Whether it was current affairs, music, or things that annoyed me, it was my way of blowing off a bit of steam. First it was once a week, then once a fortnight, then just whenever I could do it. Truth is that it became a chore, something else to get stressed about, so I stopped.
The need to pause has never left me though. I have this great capacity to get caught up in things, whether it’s work or any one of my many community involvements. And the next thing you know I’m sitting up miserably at 4am trying to get something finished. The pressure has recently ramped up again – although to be entirely truthful it’s been more a case of the imagined pressure in my mind ramping up. So something had to give, and that was my work. I blew a mental valve and ultimately felt a lot better for it.
Still and all, something has to change. Fortunately, my wife and I are making one of the biggest changes of all: we’re migrating to a new country. Lock, stock and barrel.
We just returned from Hokitika, on the beautiful west coast of New Zealand’s South Island. That’s where our new home will be when we get organised. We need to establish a new company over there, sign on the dotted line with a bank and an accountant, and pick up some new clients, too. All of those things progressed very well during our trip – the excitement is starting to build.
It’s because of all this that I’ve returned to the Pausing For Breath fold, this time in written form. I’ll blog from time to time about our progress on getting this house ready for sale, on exiting all our local commitments, on panicking about money, about one of us heading over to NZ and leaving the other behind while we get established. It’ll be good for me to record all those things for my own memory … and perhaps you can pause for a breath of your own while reading this journal.
In the meantime … wish us luck!