I am a recently retired English and Journalism teacher, free lance writer, mother, wife, world traveler and avid walker and reader who recently returned to Canada after living in Hong Kong for six years. To find out more about me visit my website.
I started teaching in 1974. I moved to Hong Kong in 2003. Now I’m back in Canada and I’ve retired from teaching. What’s next? I have promised my husband Dave that for one year I won’t look for employment and we will have a year of what he calls ‘living aimlessly.’ I thought of calling this blog ‘A Year of Living Aimlessly’ but my daughter-in-law Karen, a very wise and discerning young woman discouraged me. She didn’t think my life could ever be aimless. I toyed with calling it ‘A Year of Living Spontaneously’ since I’m the kind of person who likes to plan ahead, make lists and keep to a schedule, and this year I want to be more open to being surprised by life and what might happen when I don’t always plot things out ahead of time. I want to try lots of new things. It was Dave who suggested What Next? and I liked it immediately. I don’t know what’s next in my life. Will I start a new career? Will I go back to university? Will we settle into our new condo in Winnipeg and make that our permanent home? Will our six years of extensive travel have become such a way of life for us that we’ll have itchy feet in a few months and be back in the skies winging our way to a new country for a visit? During our time in Hong Kong I kept an electronic journal to let friends and family know what we were doing. It evolved into a daily blog that was read thousands of times each month and when I did my last post just over a week ago I received many messages from readers asking me when my next blog would start.
So here it is! I am going to try and feature things in this blog that surprise me in life, things that perhaps I didn’t expect or anticipate, whether they be ideas or events. I want to live this coming year in a ‘what next’ kind of way.
returning from the buzz of hong kong to the peg must be a serious culture shock.
james rempel
brooklyn
I am interested in your journey of discovery to Ukraine. What caught my interest is your reference to Roppovo which is where my grandmother, Helena Thiessen, and her family lived. My grandmother’s father, Jacob Thiessen, is a brother to the Mrs. Enns in your story. I have photos of Mrs. Enns, her husband, parents and siblings in case you are interested. I would be glad to forward them to you. I am interested in traveling to Ukraine to see Roppovo and would appreciate any information you might have concerning its whereabouts. Victor Penner seems to be very knowledgeable and I would like to have his contact information. Thank you in advance for any information you might have concerning Roppovo and Victor Penner.
Rebecca Lorenz