Ch-ch-ch-changes!

I've been out of touch for about 10 days.

I spent 4 days up in Eumundi with Ben working on his, er, our book. After 2+ years of kicking around ideas, playing around with outlines, it clicked. Big time. We have our vision, mission, goal, outline, and a bucket-load of raw material to work with.

It happened almost accidentally -- as many good true things do -- but when we came to a decision I felt it in my very bones. It's the right way to go. I'm very jazzed.

Will it sell a million copies? Probably not. Will it be good? Most likely. Will it be useful and of value to the people who've been asking for it? Yes.

I get a shiver when a writing project comes together with a virtual click like that.

Since we'd been so virtuously productive, we spent the last afternoon hiking in a nearby park, which included the 2nd highest waterfall in Queensland and -- best of all -- a pool (appropriate for swimming!) at the top of the waterfall! Next time I'm taking my swimsuit.

Came back to Brisbane for a long weekend with my in-laws. Ann and Rich arrived from State College PA on Thursday morning. I'm so envious -- they're handling major jet lag much much better than Jeff or I have ever have! Amazing.

I'm also proud of Jeff and I. I think we did a good job of showing them around Brisbane in a way that allows them to see it the way we see it. We also gave them a chance to experience somethings uniquely Australian.

Thursday:

* Lunch on the waterfront
(naps)
* Dinner at a wine bar near the hotel

Friday:

* Bus tour through Brisbane
* Views over the city to the bay from the top of Mt. Coot-tha
* Stroll to the manmade beach and lunch on the Southbank
* Ferry up the river
(naps)
* Kangaroo steak dinner at our place

Saturday

* Day at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, featuring koalas, sheepherding and sheep shearing demos, raptors, peacocks, goannas, platypuses, Tasmanian Devils, and exotic birds
(naps)
* Dinner on Queen Street Mall

And, yes, if you come to Brisbane for a few days, you'll probably get the same itinerary.

I'm spending time paying attention to how everything about this sojourn / sabbatical / boondoggle in Australia is changing me. I even spent an hour on the phone with my favorite US therapist today to talk through it.

One of the things this time is providing is distance, literally and metaphorically. I have distance from all my personal and professional relationships, from my DC-based habits, from my infrastructure, from everything except Jeff. With distance comes new perspective.

There are things we all adapt to, day by day. Some things are good to adapt to, some are merely...necessary. I'm gaining perspective on these things.

In our day-to-day lives, we end up inhabiting certain roles in our lives. Maybe we're The Leader. Maybe we're the Peace Maker. Maybe we're the Organizational Wienie. Maybe we're The Enforcer. These roles have probably grown out of some true aspect of our personalities but it can be tough to break out of them even when you may have grown out of them.

But here only Jeff has any pre-existing expectations of me. There is freedom to that and I find myself metaphorically relaxing. I find I am interacting with all these new people in slightly different ways than I usually do.

Freedom. Changes. Reflection. It's gonna be that kinda time.