On 25 July we’re flying to Ballina to spend four nights staying with Liz and Adam Benson on their hobby farm near Alstonville. When last caught up with them in Sydney, we decided it would be fun to celebrate Christmas in July together. This will be our second such event this month as Garry has already scheduled our own Christmas in July event at our place next weekend.
I then fly to Melbourne in early August for an annual industry tradeshow we’ve been attending for more than a decade. I hope to find time to catch up with my niece and her boyfriend, and touch base with a few Melbourne colleagues.
My travel schedule is then rounded out by a long weekend in New Zealand at the end of August. This will be my annual pilgrimage to visit family in the Bay of Plenty. For most of my life, my parents were the primary catalyst for booking a flight to New Zealand. Now they’re gone, I need to make more of an effort to stay connected.
This trans-Tasman trip is one of many subtle and not-so-subtle lifestyle changes unfolding these days. All around me, friends and family are becoming empty-nesters, transitioning into retirement and reinventing the purpose and meaning in their lives. If I’m honest, this change has crept up on me. It’s akin to that classic trope of boiling a frog. Over time, small changes accumulate until one day you wake up and realise the world you once knew has gone.
For more than three decades, my life has been fairly predictable, at least in terms of building a career, saving for retirement and striving for traditional milestones such as debt-free home-ownership. Now, as I approach the final decades of my life, and these milestones are achieved, my priorities are shifting. My life’s purpose is quietly changing, and I’ve yet to work out what it all means for me. It’ll be interesting to see how my blog posts evolve as this journey unfolds.
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