“Don’t be afraid to take that big step”

Day 5

“Don’t be afraid to take that big step” read my after dinner fortune cookie. It made me smile, because truly what could I do next? I was alone, and I had left everything familiar behind just five days ago.

Intuitively I’ve always known that life would change for me this year. And, if I was honest, I would have to say that I did not think it would have been work that forced the change. But it is what it is, and here I am.

There is something a bit exotic about being a Canadian here in Austria. I don’t know why. Last night when I shared that I was from Canada’s western wine region with a local proprietor, he declared that the table I was seated at was forever mine. Or maybe I said something wonderfully profound in my very broken German. Who knows? It doesn’t matter. Because less than a week in I have made friends, have a walking companion and managed to unpack a year’s worth of clothing in one teeny tiny hotel room closet.

Somehow I thought moving would be a lot like traveling, which I had done a bit of over the past year – but it is not. There is no end in sight. Whether I am ready or not, my life is here now. Which is why I think I will head on down to the friendly gang that called out “abend” in the hotel lounge and see what my broken German might lead me to discover tonight.

In many ways that fortune cookie had it bang on. Moving was the easy part. Its the little things that really push me out of my comfort zone and make me feel empowered.