The Kindness of Friends
One of the beautiful things about travel is that you are often reminded about the kindness of strangers. One of the beautiful things about not having a home for the last month is that we’ve been reminded about the kindness of our closest friends.
I’ve already talked about the limbo land that has been the last few months, but one of the positive things to come out of it is that as we’ve slowly said goodbye to the people we’ve managed to catch up with, we’ve come to realise how lucky we are to have so many people who know us really well. And on top of how lucky we are to have people who know us well, we have friends who will go out of their way for us too.
Since moving out of our apartment we have been lucky enough to have an entire house to ourselves. It looks out over Lake Macquarie, and is beautiful and peaceful and quiet. This house belongs to a good friend of ours, and he let us live here while he was away. Being here is a pleasure and a privilege, it beats the hell out of staying in the place we’re trying desperately to leave, and our being here has saved us a considerable amount of money.
But of course there’s still things we need to wrap up in Sydney, and Mel was at work until the end of this week too. Where we’re staying is a long drive from Sydney, or a short drive and a two hour train trip. Once again some good friends have stepped in to help us out. We’ve crashed overnight with a few different people, and each time have been accepted with open arms.
It wasn’t a life or death situation, we could have commuted like thousands of others do every day, we could have stayed in a cheap hotel, we could have done a lot of other things, but these friends wanted to help, despite the disruption to their routine and invasion of their space.
Before letting go of our apartment we had hosted countless people, and tho it occasionally caused mild inconvenience or concern, and tho there were days we just wanted the place to ourselves, it was for the most part a pleasure to have these people around, and privilege to have them in our company.
We thought next to nothing of putting these people up, until being on the receiving end of this kind of hospitality. I know it’s an emotional time for us right now, and I don’t mean to get all hippy on you, but I can’t help but feel a profound sense of gratitude for the friends who have gone out of their way for us like this. Letting us into their homes, into their lives, cooking for us, spending time with us.
Other friends have helped in other ways. Buying us dinner, listening to our ranting, offering advice, helping us out here and there. This last few months, and especially this last few weeks have been a particularly difficult time for us, and even small gestures have meant so much.
I know I suck at receiving thanks, and apparently I suck at giving it too, but this is my lame attempt. So many amazing gestures from so many amazing people. Little or large, they will not be forgotten. Thank you!!
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