Wednesday Philosophising

July 15th is a special day for me.

For those of you who know me and Ralph at all, you'll know that we like to celebrate the little things. The special days. The silly anniversaries. And I promise you, it's not just me! For example, Ralph surprised me one day by announcing we'd been married 1,000,000 minutes! And we both calculated (independently) and then planned special things for 1,000 days married and so on.

Therefore, I like to keep July 15th in my diary as one such day. What is it? It's the day I left the UK to come and live in Germany. So yesterday, I celebrated 7 years since arriving here. For me, the act of remembering is important. Recognition of a turning point in my life.

I remember saying a few words at my "leaving" celebration. I said that many of the people there had attended other leaving parties - me leaving for France; me moving to Cambridge; my big adventure in the Philippines. But that THIS was different. In the past, I had left knowing I would be back. But now I was leaving and Ralph was waiting for me at the other end. I wasn't planning on coming back - ever. This goodbye was for real.

I felt it strongly then, and I feel it strongly now. I have made Germany my home. My heart is really settled here and I can't imagine ever going back (of course, I still dream of moving on to Canada but that is another dream altogether!)

Since becoming an adult, I have never stayed in one place for so long, never continued the same job for longer than a few years, never really felt as at home as I do.

My family make fun of me that I have found my true destiny in Germany seeing as though I am a controlling, bossy so & so. But it's so much more than that. Yes, I'm convinced that I really must be half-German (!) but I feel so happy, content and settled. I live a charmed life and my home plays a big part in that.

In celebration of my achievement, I want to create a special layout - maybe I will use this text as the journaling - hopefully tomorrow evening. But here is a layout that I made back in January looking at the same subject but a little more light-heartedly.

What achievement are you celebrating this week?