Independence Day

It's the 4th of July; day four of te tau okioki. This is sabbatical #1 (as my mate Chris Andersen calls it, 'Baby's first sabbatical') and I'm going to blog about my experiences partly as a diary for myself and partly so I can avoid excruciatingly self-involved and lengthy fb status updates as a misguided attempt to keep everyone enthralled with my whereabouts.

Actually, I started my sabbatical on Canada Day, 1 July, but this first blog post has had to wait until US Independence Day - I'm not entirely sure what to make of this accident - but certainly, while the last of my ties to Aotearoa are being loosened (have had final poetry reading, final marking almost complete, bedroom a haze of suitcases and piles) I am feeling more and more independent by the minute. Yum!

Not that independence is the number one for me all the time - I love being part of a network (a nice cosy squashy network) of connections and relationships, and will definitely return home after a year away because, as I found myself telling someone last nite "this is where I make sense." But I'm a bit depleted, a bit drained, a bit running-out-of-steam, so I'm ready to be a big girl and head back overseas and get all charged up again and refocussed and then I'll be ready to come home in June 2012 to be, well, all charged up again and refocussed. Te tau okioki. Or, to misquote a poem of my own, 'te tau okioki both ways' :)

So here I am, writing my blog rather than marking an essay. Have finalised my plan to meet with cousin Katrina tomorrow to go thru some archives that might fit my book project. Have got a sleeping Matiu in my bed, knocked out as only a 6 year old can be, and knowing that Auntie Lala will come and hop in and be there in the morning when he wakes up. Am getting ready to leave on Saturday for Sydney, and Adelaide, where I'll have a chance to write and check out some more archives and reconnect with some very cool people.

I have decided that every week this sabbatical, I am going to spend one day at home to write. or at least, one day at home. I'm  not sure I'll manage that this week but I'm okay with that - but I'm going to pick one day a week to write for the rest of my year...

Hmm, now that's a Declaration I'm happy (and privileged and humbled and excited) to be able to make.