We are in Italy again…my spiritual home! After what seemed like an eternity and not wanting to believe it until we were actually on the plane, we are here. It is nothing short of wonderful. I was so anxious leading up to going away – yes, about all of the requirements for travel for both Australia and Italy, packing our luggage, hunting for our cat who decided to run away for two days (a story for another time) but also because it would be the first time in 3 years that we are actually getting away from home! I do think the lockdowns contributed to this in a material way and you don’t really know that this has happened until you actually try to leave your sphere or virtual prison.

We are doing something fundamentally wrong in Australia. This is not an Australia-bashing session – I love Australia and it has been so incredibly good to us. However, you reach a point in your life where you realise that there is more to life than working and that connection with others is more critical than anything else. COVID taught me a great deal and this was lesson number 1. We are so wired to need to connect and I really feel that we are losing this connection as a society and this is resulting in more mental health issues as well as general unhappiness. In one of the most profound TED talks I have seen in a long time, the journalist Johann Hari outlines why the loss of connection with others could be behind someone’s anxiety and depression and gives moving examples of where renewing connections have helped in material ways – https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_this_could_be_why_you_re_depressed_or_anxious?language=en

So being here is feeding my soul in ways I didn’t realise. And our kids are feeling it too. They feel part of the community here and love that every time we go to get an espresso or to pick up some tomatoes from the local grocer, we meet different friends or family along the way and end up spending hours just connecting. We all really needed this.

Fabio and I have often pondered how do we recreate that level of connection in Australia. How do we ensure we feel as fulfilled there as we do so easily here. That is difficult. We often say in Australia that life gets in the way but this is not true. Life isn’t getting in the way – work is. We are prioritising work and school above our need to connect and our society reinforces this by the value we place on people being so busy. We love to say we are really busy.

I don’t have a solution for this yet….but we are working on it. In the meantime, I am enjoying just ‘being’ here. Our first morning in Savona, was like this…. so serene, so Italy.

Here we go!

F xx