I did a crazy thing. I packed up all my things, sold more than half of what I accumulated in my lifetime and travelled thousands of kilometres across the countryside to a new home. Just like that.

It was in my mind for a bit, but not all that long. Where it started and why it transpired I’m not entirely sure – but I suspect it has been coming for years. Many, countless hours, days and months of adhering to the status quo, doing what I was used to do, and what is expected to be done, and suddenly it all upended spectacularly into something completely different.

One would think that something as drastic as that follows months of careful planning, enabled by a budget that fits the ask, but it could not have come at a worse time. And like I have experienced before, when change comes it comes with a force, and it requires bravery. Courage calls, it does not whisper. Although I tried to plan and save for the event, life happened, Covid-19 happened and the world turned upside down in any event. IN the end it could not have been any harder to pull off.

But here we are regardless. One small miracle after the other and a couple of weeks of not giving up, despite it all.

I am in a completely new environment now with little that is familiar to glue it together. Filled with massive uncertainly about just everything, fearfully wondering how to make it to the other side in one piece the next couple of months.

Then, on my morning walk, while exploring the area, I am reminded of the significance of new roads, and the need to follow them. Just like the day before when I visited a sandy, new beach with the kids, dune up and dune down, until we got lost back to the parking. A friendly woman chatting cheerfully behind us, the only other person on the road, got lost with us and as a hidden footpath made its appearance, she blindly followed it with us in tow. Without her, we would have missed the almost insignificant clue back to where we needed to go. I thought of her as an angel afterwards, because without her we could have been lost for a considerable longer time in the relentless heat. She saw a new road, an opportunity and took it without any hesitation.

So, as I explored my new area this morning I kept on following new, unfamiliar paths to see where they might take me. It was interesting, a little unsettling at times and breathtakingly beautiful.

Thing is, when change happens, exploring and finding new roads are inevitable, and although it might be scary and sometimes downright frightening, new roads often lead to beautiful new experiences, and I am going in that direction… forward. So when life is double as hard, the future seems fragile and unclear and everything else feels out of sorts, don’t run for the hills, find subtle footpaths forward.

Let us see what the future holds – as the saying goes, I’m not looking in the rearview mirror, as I am not going that way, so don’t you do that either.

Navigate the new with a heart filled with hope and find new joy while exploring hidden footpaths – as it might just take you where you were meant to go.

Ps: Pictures from my morning walk