An inelegant transition

Earlier this year I was in a ‘perfect storm’, and actually I was blissfully unaware of what was to happen to me.

After 23 years, my husband Dave and I sold our beautiful farm on an undiscovered coastline in New Zealand with million-dollar views, a walnut plantation, two houses, five sheds and treasured landscaped gardens. This was all created by the two of us and had been a labour of love and discovery about ourselves, and what was really possible as we started with an empty piece of land that had never been looked after.

This decision to sell was big for us and was not one we would have chosen to make (we always believed we would leave at the end of a great life well lived in a box!).

However, sometimes the universe has other plans. Dave’s diagnosis three years prior of Stage Four Cancer with a limited lifespan turned our world on its axis. Two rounds of radiotherapy, six operations, eight specialists, four hospitals and countless tests, PET scans and CT scans and medical appointments filled our world. This experience taught us a great deal about the NZ health system (both private and public), and we go to know the very special people who choose this profession in whatever guise or specialty they opt for.

And of course, our most important lesson was about the fragility or conversely strength of ourselves.

The decision was taken, and instinctively we knew this was important to do and do well.

A few months prior we had taken a long weekend in Taupo which had become a regular haunt during recovery periods for Dave. On a walk one morning Dave told me he wanted an active life in a place that enabled him to do just that, and we got to wondering aloud if Taupo could do that for both of us.

1) Funny how we pigeon-hole ourselves –

We stopped, looked at each other, and began to open our minds to what was possible and to ask ourselves how we could look at the lake with new eyes and appreciation.

2) Being the great decisions makers we are (strong belief after years of hard-won experience good and not so good!!), by that afternoon we were looking at land to buy and before we departed for home, we had a conditional offer accepted on a beautiful piece of land in a gated community in Acacia Bay, Taupo!

So, movement was occurring almost in spite of our current life, and we were off to a new one!

Over the next few months, I was reminded about the elegant art of transition. I had been a student of William Bridges many years prior and had his books in my library – most particularly Transitions which I had recommended to many clients. And still do!

Here are the topics I will cover over the next few weeks as my story unfolds: