As I sit here in our apartment writing this I'm wearing a mint colored shirt with an owl on it that someone who's followed our photo sets might recognize. It was my favorite shirt before we left for Iceland in May 2011 and the accompanying preferential treatment I gave it while we traveled is probably the reason I'm still able to wear it today - the only one of the four I had with me that's really still fit for public.
I don't bring this up because it really matters, I bring it up because every time I wear this shirt I'm reminded of our Wanders. The people, the places, the sights and sounds. I've been thinking about it all a lot lately for several reasons, not least of which because writing up the end of our time in NZ has, quite literally, been on my to-do list for the better part of two years now. Part of the reason is certainly wrapped up in a lot of future-inspired past-reflections (follow that?), and part is the ever present itch for finding and/or creating a little adventure here and there. But a part of it is, finally, a bit of a routine setting in. It's been well over a year and a half since we got back to the U.S. and only in the last six months would I say it has really begun to feel like we're in some sort of routine life again. It's a bit strange but I find little everyday moments constantly flashing me into vivid memories of this or that place where we were but aren't right now. It happens, literally, every day.
We're in Seattle, Washington, USA. I should say that because this, right now, is also an adventure and so far it's been an up and down one with its own set of twists and turns that are all same same but different from Ban Lung or Berlin. It's hard to say, sometimes, if we really truly live here or if it's just an extension of Wonder Wander - a place we've set down for awhile to explore more in-depth. It's sort of dreamlike in that way, when I let myself drift in the thought of it all, but it's a beautiful city in a stunning part of the country so maybe it doesn't really matter.
What I sat down to write about isn't where we are, though, but where we were. New Zealand. Specifically, our final month on the north island before returning stateside. That post is coming, I promise. I can feel it getting closer. And I can feel new life stirring for this blog - a new adventure that needs its space, picking up where this first incarnation of Wonder Wander is leaving off. That's a good feeling.
What I sat down to write about isn't where we are, though, but where we were. New Zealand. Specifically, our final month on the north island before returning stateside. That post is coming, I promise. I can feel it getting closer. And I can feel new life stirring for this blog - a new adventure that needs its space, picking up where this first incarnation of Wonder Wander is leaving off. That's a good feeling.