In Australia most roads have a speed limit of 60 or 80 KPH, at least around town. They also have speed cameras. If you get caught by one of these cameras going 1 kilometer about the speed limit, they post you a ticket. Don’t worry I have not received one of these (even with my new zoom-zoom Mazda 2). So then you may ask why am I telling you about speed cameras? Well, I am irritated that these cameras leave no room for human error; they have no margin and no human compassion or mercy. What happens if they put one on the bottom of a hill, or you get distracted for just a second? There is no person to whom you can explain your mistake you are just punished. I don’t think this would usually be so striking to me, but having just moved countries, and switched jobs I have made a lot of mistakes, and I am so thankful for the mercy that I have received.
For instance, a few weeks ago I moved out of my host home. I loved staying with my host family, but I felt it was time to move out so that I could start what will be my normal life. So I found a house share situation and I moved. 2 days after I moved in, one of the two housemates moved out, leaving me with one housemate who was never there. In the two weeks I lived there, I saw him once. Now when you consider the fact that there was no pre existing relationship, it just made the house seem empty, but not empty enough where I felt like it was mine, and that I had free reign of the place. So I moved out. I appreciated that he understood that it was not a good place for me, and that Leah, my new housemate, kept faith that I wouldn’t do the same thing to her. Now I am living in a house that I love, with a housemate whom I consider to be a friend. I am close to work and I am in town, so I am close to everything I need. In moments like these I am thankful for mercy and the chance to fix my mistakes.
I also can’t help but wonder if there is some sort of speed limit on life. In the last month I have moved twice, bought a bicycle, and a car. In the past 2 months I have started a new job and moved countries. Yet somehow I feel like I have been here forever. I feel like it has been ages since I have seen my friends and family, and I miss them terribly. A part of me feels like I am home, and another part feels like home is a million miles away. I feel like there have been so many changes in my life, and like my feet aren’t really grounded anywhere. I can’t help but wonder if it is possible to move too quickly, and to violate some sort of internal speed limit, I can’t help but wonder if I can go to fast and accidently run into a wall. Sometimes when I wake up it feels like I have, like my system can’t handle another emotion, but my engine still seems to run and get me through.
I was running errands the other day, and I took the scenic route home. Literally the street is named something or another scenic drive. As a drove, I wondered what it would mean to take the scenic drive in life. I think that many Australians have mastered that. There is just a different pace to life here. It is really hard to try and explain. It is not that everyone is late for things, or that things don’t happen in an efficient manner. It is just that people seem to go about life differently. They are early to bed and early to rise. Most of the shops close at noon on Saturday until Monday morning. Things just move differently. Some people say it is the weather, some the sea air, and others say it is just because Bundy is a country town. I like the pace they have set here, and I hop that I am making sure to slow down and enjoy the experience, not going so fast as to miss out.
