Come Back Like Water

Over the years, I’ve moved around a lot. Today is move number 17 in 21 years. I’m really fortunate to have been able to live in so many different cities around the world. I feel especially lucky to get to move around with a partner that actually, somehow makes the act of moving, the act of packing up, fun!

I know this kind of lifestyle isn’t for everyone. But I, myself, feel constantly inspired thanks to moving to new countries and experiencing new cultures. This is not to say that moving isn’t tough. It is. Saying goodbye to new friends and colleagues is tiresome. This time around, I feel especially robbed of the opportunities which Covid stole from me, and the feeling of regret – wishing I’d done more, said more, experienced more with these amazing people - is especially high.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if there really was a “Moving Map”?

One of the things that helps me during this time of transition is a mindset that home is wherever I am with my family. I’m hoping that my kids will share this same sentiment.

Recently a friend of my daughter’s introduced us a to a Turkish tradition of pouring out water after someone has departed on a journey, wishing them to “go like water, come back like water,” like waves. As I write this, I have just begun my journey over the Atlantic Ocean, 12 200 metres above sea level. I hope this is a really good omen that we will have an effortlessly flowing journey!

We’ve talked about this idea a lot as a family: how being flexible and riding the waves can help us adapt more quickly to our new surroundings, and how knowing that wherever we are, we can always go back “home” through our memories and that home is wherever we are together.

These conversations reminded me of a “tube” that is super popular with the teenagers in my piano studio: Yiruma’s “River Flows in You”; a piece my own kids also happen to love. So recently, my piano Bernadette and I dedicated one last Geneva live online performance live to them. If you’d like to hear these soundwaves, you can click on this button for the YouTube link.

(I will warn you that Bernadette was feeling pretty “distempered” since finding out we were moving: she is pretty out of tune!)

I leave you with this idea today:

May the river always flow in you: may you navigate your own journey as naturally as effortlessly flowing water; may you know that this river that you carry with you can always lead you back home.

I did…didn’t I?

On a roll