Moments...

I have been pondering for months now why the heck move to New Zealand. I've been troubled by the lack of concrete answers. It would be easy to tell you I am making more money, it is a solid career move, a beautiful country, a life adventure and it would all be true. But arguably... I could make even more money in the US, as a solid career move, in one of the many beautiful places in the US and still be quite adventurous. New Zealand was not required. So why?

I do not have a logical answer. But I do have an answer.

It is somewhat hard to describe. Let me start at the begining. Well before I ever considered moving Amy and I discussed what we might like to do with our life together. Neither of us felt tied to Kansas and we decided to dream a little. Out of that discussion we came up with places we'd like to live. We had no idea how we would ever be able to live in any of them, but we wanted to. One of them was, of course, New Zealand. A week later I attended an industry conference with some fellow data engineers from Telecom New Zealand. A week after that I had an offer to apply. I will call this "a moment of clarity."

Immigrating to a new coutry is amazingly hard. There are literally hundreds of pages of requirements. Initially I was daunted. But... due to the nature of the job I was being offered, there was an immigration short cut that bypassed all the worst requirements and secured approval in 45 days. In the process of our application, after being warned many times of how impossible rapid approval was, we were always immediately approved. At each of these moments of clarity I knew I was doing something I was supposed to do.

Mere days after I left my former employer, announcement flew about a change in CEO, coming re-organizations, possible buy-outs and my old job was eliminated. It was perfect timing.

I specifically chose Jan 2nd as my termination date to qualify for all the end-of-year compensation that might be given. But as an offshoot, I discovered only after the fact that this also extended my insurance coverage through the end of January--quite coveniently covering my family during the gap from Jan 2nd to Jan 14th when I started in Telecom. A moment...

Since then I have had many more moments. Last week while driving half lost at dusk I came around a mountain to see the full moon rising huge over the far ridge. It was perhaps one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever been given. I instantly felt a sense of calm knowing I should be here.

This morning on my usual walk on the harbor, I was watching this cloud play hide and seek with the sun. At just the moment I looked up a sunbeam poked through and shined brightly on my little patch of the pier. It quickly faded. I felt another moment. I happened to have my camera and I took a picture of it. It isn't a grand picture... but trust me... it was beautiful.

I still haven't come up with a good answer to why I am here. But I do know that I should be here.

Love you all. Miss you all. See you all real soon!