Fleeting Adventures

Sometimes I find this life of adventure courtesy of the Navy exhausting. The mere thought of moving sends shivers down my spine- the dreaded kind. As we begin our 4th year in Japan, we anticipate it being our last. Some discussions sneak into daily life about future options. All I can think of is piles of stuff to sort, boxes to move, and oh how I don't want to move again.

While home this summer, a neighbor commented that it would be nice to live in a foreign land. I was thinking how nice it would be not have to move, to have a garden that is the same garden that you have been cultivating for many years, etc. I think I am coming to end of my hankering for adventure days or at least the ones that involve a big move.

The Navy expects a lot of spouses. You have to have resilience to do this- new towns, new schools, new friends, new foods, new countries, it never ends. You finally start to figure it out, get the hang of the local ways, and then rip time to start again. Meanwhile your spouse works night and day, gets deployed for months on end, and has to be on call for months at a time. And that is called just doing their job. No extra credit for not eating dinner with the family, missing bedtime stories night after night, and not being able to drink a beer without checking the ER even if its your birthday. It also strikes me that very few spouses whine about it nonetheless. God love 'em. I feel exceedingly grumpy at the demands the Navy places on each of us.

Today I did manage to join some other Navy spouses for a flower walk looking for clover bush around Kamakura. It's the part of the adventure I do like. The beauty of this place is so fleeting. It is all fleeting- flowers, life, small kids, time in the Navy, etc. It is only for a very brief moment we can enjoy this place and these flowers. It made me feel better about the time left in the Navy. It goes so fast. One day I will be bored by my same old garden. One day.

Sometimes I find this life of adventure courtesy of the Navy exhausting. The mere thought of moving sends shivers down my spine- the dreaded kind. As we begin our 4th year in Japan, we anticipate it being our last. Some discussions sneak into daily life about future options. All I can think of is piles of stuff to sort, boxes to move, and oh how I don't want to move again.

While home this summer, a neighbor commented that it would be nice to live in a foreign land. I was thinking how nice it would be not have to move, to have a garden that is the same garden that you have been cultivating for many years, etc. I think I am coming to end of my hankering for adventure days or at least the ones that involve a big move.

The Navy expects a lot of spouses. You have to have resilience to do this- new towns, new schools, new friends, new foods, new countries, it never ends. You finally start to figure it out, get the hang of the local ways, and then rip time to start again. Meanwhile your spouse works night and day, gets deployed for months on end, and has to be on call for months at a time. And that is called just doing their job. No extra credit for not eating dinner with the family, missing bedtime stories night after night, and not being able to drink a beer without checking the ER even if its your birthday. It also strikes me that very few spouses whine about it nonetheless. God love 'em. I feel exceedingly grumpy at the demands the Navy places on each of us.

Today I did manage to join some other Navy spouses for a flower walk looking for clover bush around Kamakura. It's the part of the adventure I do like. The beauty of this place is so fleeting. It is all fleeting- flowers, life, small kids, time in the Navy, etc. It is only for a very brief moment we can enjoy this place and these flowers. It made me feel better about the time left in the Navy. It goes so fast. One day I will be bored by my same old garden. One day.