Sabbatical. I'm still in the preparation phase... tying up loose ends and letting things go. Today I entered the last of my marks for teaching, so my more immediate ties to Aotearoa are lessening each day.
Now, tonite, I'm packing. Selecting things to keep, throwing things away, deciding the fates of so many material possessions... am creating my own archive at the moment, packing up my whare and getting things back into boxes again. I used to do this all the time back when I was a student in Auckland, and then some more when I moved to Ithaca (NY, USA) then to Hawaii then back to Ithaca and finally home to Wellington... I did it again when I spent three months in Sydney a couple of years ago and everything went into storage.
And here we go again - getting things into piles and ready for boxes and plastic containers, some of which still have labels from the last time they stored my life and kept it watertight.
Getting ready for another journey, with my usual three categories of things to take with me: clothes/ shoes/ jewelery/ toiletries, school things/ research things/ things that need chargers, and 'things that remind me who I am.' In that last small pile, I've got photos, a few pictures and cards, my raukura, a kowhaiwhai-design hanging Nana stitched for me years ago, an 'I love Wellington' teatowel, some fabric, and room for a few more things. The last thing to be added (early Saturday morning when I get up to go to the airport) will be Aunty Martha's wreath, the white one Mum made while she and I sat with Auntie Martha during some of her last days back when I was sixteen.
Tying up the loose ends. Preparation. Archives. Keeping it all watertight. Getting ready to go.
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