It’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon and I’m sat on a deck chair on the front porch of my pretty little Australian house with a note pad and pen. I find myself here quite often when the sun comes out and I have nowhere specific to be. The combination of the warm sun beating down on me, my thoughts buzzing around in my head and the occasional ‘Muuuum, can you help me with my LEGO? coming from inside the house, leaves me feeling pretty content and usually, unnaturally relaxed. 

The cars and people go up and down the steeet, oblivious to my existence and I find myself thankful for the white picket fence (which surrounds my front garden) for its role in my contented state. But today something is different. Unlike most other times where my handwriting becomes illegible to everyone including me, as I desperately try to get my thoughts down on paper before they inevitably disappear, I find that today the paper remains as blank as my mind. 

I decide to write a list. Lists are always good as they make you feel like you’ve accomplished something when actually the only thing you’ve really done is write a list of all the things you have to do. My first list comprises of all the people that I need to inform of my imminent change of address. That in itself leads to another item on the list ‘mail redirection’! I write a second list. This time all of the tasks that need to still be completed for the Gym relocation, none of which can even begin to be accomplished until I get the ever elusive construction permit for the toilet build. 

I understand completely what my brain is trying to do. It’s desperately looking for something to control when everything else in my world seems out of control. In five weeks time my lovely little miners cottage will become the primary residence of another young English girl who fell in love with it upon first sight, just as I did, and Patrick and I will be officially ‘homeless’. The original plan had us moved and settled in the UK in time for the start of the British school year. I’ve now lost track of how many ‘leaving’ dates we’ve had and our ‘imminent’ move still remains about six weeks away. Aargh!  All the while everything I have set up in Australia in preparation for the big move means that aside from cleaning the fish tank (a job I completely detest) and packing up the few remaining items of our Australian life, I’m left twiddling my thumbs. 

So I decide to have a think about what my future UK career looks like. I brainstorm a few ideas, look at the possibilities and consider what opportunities might be available to me in the place I will once again call home, some 16 years after I left. I rule out returning to analytical work, actually I’m not sure an office job of any description is going to fulfil my employment aspirations these days. I love to teach gymnastics and undoubtedly that will feature in some capacity, but one of the reasons for walking away from the gymnastics life in Australia was being able to spend more time with my son, so I continue to think. I wonder if the Sarah Katie book series will take off enough for a full time commitment, maybe, but it certainly won’t happen overnight regardless. Again I am back to the drawing board. 

So many thoughts fill my head.. Could I be a business coach, a bit of a closet goal of mine. Can I make a career from writing? I wish – maybe I should investigate that option further. Should I open up another gym? Hmmm unlikely.  Could I go into business with a friend? Maybe. And then to top it all off I decide that flipping houses looks like fun and something I would like to try, and who knows, I might actually be good at. 

The afternoon has almost passed trying to process all of the thoughts in my head and being unable to make sense out of any of them, I close my notebook. I put down my pen, close my eyes and decide to enjoy the suns rays. My contentment soon returns as I lie there knowing that whatever I do, I’ll do it with passion or I won’t do it at all, and that either something will come along right when it’s meant to or I will set another goal if I need to. Just not today.  Today I will listen to the birds singing in the tress and find the ‘missing’ LEGO piece when hollered, and be happy to ‘just be’. 

💕