My first entry of this new year, and I have a wonderful positive feeling that it is going to be another AWESOME year for the Robertson family....and if it is not, and the road does rise up to meet us at some point, I know that we will once again huddle down against the hardship and come out stronger on the other side.
On that note I find myself wanting to blog the following experience, and some of the thoughts that it has generated in me......I had a long chat with a good friend of mine on the phone earlier, she has just returned from South Africa where her family spent the Christmas holidays and the sound of despondency when she said "but we had to come back here" (meaning England) really really struck me. So much so that I found myself mentioning it to my family over dinner.
Are we really that different? What has made us genuinely able to settle in this country? Why didn't we feel it a "punishment" to have to come back here? I honestly don't know why it is working for us, but I do know one thing for sure...all 5 of us are genuinely and honestly happy and settled here.
My children love the freedom of walking and Independence (from their mouths) and the weather really isn't an issue for them. We give ourselves the 3 months from Mid November to Mid February to "veg", to completely hibernate and spend whole days in our jammies - I don't nag them about television and laptops and I don't force them to venture out in the freezing cold just because they need some exercise, we read huge numbers of books and spend hours cuddled under warm snuggly blankets.....bears and squirrels do it after all (hibernate that is) and they are happy productive creatures in the summer.
In the summer we LIVE....our souls are restored and our spirits rejuvenated, we go places and we do things and I make sure that all the way through the relatively short bitter cold weather we have something to look forward to....an outing a month from March to October, places they want to visit and wild swimming in the rivers. We have stopped trying to fight the changes this emigration has brought into our lives, we are "doing as the Romans" so to speak, we have held onto our African values, morals and beliefs but we have learned to embrace the changes, accept the losses and find our bliss.
All that is not to say that every day is perfect, we have moments filled with terrible longing for the people we left behind, but life is a choice after all.....we chose to live here and now like I have said to my children we can choose to be happy or we can choose to focus on the bad and spend the rest of our time here longing to be somewhere else which just seems such a waste of our few precious days in this world. Guess it may just simply boil down to us being some of the lucky ones.
5 comments:
HI there
Found your blog via clarewarren.blogspot so glad to hear of another happy SA family who are positive about emigration, and choosing to be positive, rather than dwell on the negative. We are probably headed to the S of E this year ourselves! Can't wait.
I can echo every word you say for us - we have settled easily too, why? not sure?
I think the major difference is you have all made a choice to be happy & positive. Happiness is a decision - you can choose to be happy & positive even when some things bug you or sink into a bog of discontent. You all are really positive & happiness follows - you are also a "family" it makes a huge difference. Enjoy every moment.
Happy is a state of mind and a choice. You carry it within you...with the Lord you will be happy anywhere you choose.
xx
i second all that - its all choice - nobody forced us to leave SA and come to the UK - we spent hard earned cash and gave up so much to get here - we chose to spend hard earned pounds now to help us settle and enjoy this new adventure - we have gained so much in many areas we never imagined - starting over does that to you - ATTITUDE really makes or breaks a person who has immigrated - i also strongly believe happy mother happy family - we create the home and the atmosphere and as we are both so settled our families got the green light to follow suite - is it perfect here? never - is SA perfect? never - nowhere is - we have found what makes us content enough to function and enjoy our days here - life really is so short and none of us know how long we are blessed with on this earth - to live miserable seems such a waste of time to me - so i choose to be happy and love life and make the most of every situation .....for me that is here in the UK for now - one never knows what is around the corner but i sure hope and pray i get to live many more years here in the UK cause i love it !!!!!!
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