Eve of Possibility

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As I lie here at 2am in my welcoming room I am aware that from here on out everything changes. You see tomorrow morning at 9am I get in the family car and speed off to the airport. There I will catch a plane to Sapporo, Japan to begin my new life as an expatriate in a land I cannot comprehend at the moment. I haven't set off like this in six years!!

I can't believe that everything that I have been working for the past five years has come to fruition. Ever since I got back from 2001 I have been looking to move to somewhere more exotic, somewhere different. I could have left immediately and become a teacher of the English language, but I wanted something more substantial. Something that would give me better job prospects when I eventually returned to these shores. So after five years of getting my masters degree and job experience I have landed a great job and can begin the adventure.

It's funny I have spent five years trying to get away from home, but now I realize how lucky I was to be able to be home to really get to know the place and my family. It's hard to be content in this life. There is always somewhere out there that you think can offer you something else. I will miss my family and my friends, but I am ready to do this. This is the right move for me. And with communication being what it has become I will still be able to keep in touch with the people and things I cherish the most.

I have spent the last few weeks trying to squeeze every last savory detail out of this place. I have eaten all my favorite foods, and have spent some time with friends. I loved my time on the beach. The water and sun simultaneously relaxing me and giving me the grounding strength to face my adventure of a lifetime in Asia.

My family has been great. This past weekend we would go down to the beach and go for swims and just talk and be together as a family. On Friday night we went to our favorite seafood restaurant, Tully's. It was great to continue this tradition. Tradition is important, as we thought back on the past and people we loved who are know longer with us and those who still are but are in foreign lands. Anyway, the crab cakes and the fisherman's platter were delicious as always.

I am leaving for Japan with some annoying health condition, nothing too serious, but I know that it's just one more hurdle to conquer. It's funny before every major foreign adventure I have had where I will be gone for longer than two months I have had some health thing right before I went. First Ireland, then Australia, now this. Those disappeared when I got settled in, hopefully this will too.

So Japan it is. As sleep fills my eyes and clouds my thoughts the whole things seems like a haze. Me living in Japan, never did I ever think that my eyes would ever see this day come to pass. In church this Sunday the priest talked about "Kairos", moments. These were moments in a person's life that changes every single moment that follows. Well right now I am in a kairos moments. Only god knows what happens next.

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Photos

Outside of Tully's
I walked around and looked at the boats as the sun set with some of my favorite people, my family.

St. Francis
This statue in the backyard of my summer house is a soothing presence.

Beach
All summer I sought refuge on the shores of the Atlantic.