Everyone needs a community!

With the craziness of the world at the moment I thought today I'd touch on the human need for a sense of belonging and community.

Iain and I have been extremely privileged to live in many countries over my career; New Zealand ( birthplace) UK, Netherlands, Dubai, USA, and India. Every country has delivered to us incredible experiences and we have met some very special people, many who will be life long friends even if we do not get to see them often. As we have talked about our future we have often found many spots that we would eventually like to have set down roots eg. the mild weather in the southern Mediterranean, and the beauty of the Netherlands with the biking culture that goes well into older years. However the decision to chose has always seemed to boil down to something that keeps coming back to us through each experience.and confirmed during Covid.

We will always be wanderers. We love experiences, meeting new people, experiencing and learning about new cultures and the history of places however we are continuously drawn to two things:

• What is my sense of belonging? What makes me feel that I belong in this place?

• Who and where is my community? Do I have one and is the way we feel about members of this community and the way we treat each other unconditional?

Why is it that when I travelled in my early twenties did Kiwis and Aussis tend to congregate?

Why in India was it the Aussis, Kiwis, South Africans, and British that tended to congregate together and the Europeans likewise?

Why in the Netherlands were our closest friends from England?

Was it language? That we all like to have a beer and a wine or two especially over a BBQ? That we share the love of certain sports? That we get each others jokes?

There have been many articles written on this so we are obviously not alone. More importantly there is an association between sense of belonging, being part of a community on health and well being. Even without the theory we just knew that it was important to settle somewhere where we could continue to build on both of these dynamics within our lives. Hence the decision to relocate back to New Zealand.