Sometimes you just don’t know why you go a certain path, you just know that’s the path to take. I got the biggest epiphany of my life when I was knitting a jumper that never did get finished. But boy, did it set something in motion! It was a sunny winter Sunday morning in Featherston, about seven years ago already. My partner Wim and I had just been bickering about all the time we spent on commuting and working. I mean we were doing fine, had a lovely old villa in Featherston over the ‘hill’ from Wellington. We enjoyed living in Featherston — it’s a Booktown! — we loved going to Wellington for weekends, we had some really good friends. Everything was rolling along.
Waranga
There were, as there always are, minor bumps in the road. We could and would smooth them out. But, and that was a big but, we were not living the life we wanted. I wanted to write more after completing my Diploma in Creative Writing at Whitireia Polytechnic. There are writers who can do that on the train, I admire them. And part-time jobs were just not around at that time, even getting permission to work from home in those pre-Covid days proved strenuous .
Wim was planning on opening a waranga, a take-away with delicious and healthy Indonesian food for the thousands of commuters coming through Featherston every working day. He had gone to night school to write a business plan, it all looked fantastic but we couldn’t find a location on the main road in the near future. He was talking to the owner of the cheese shop about a joint venture in a building that to this day is still derelict and closed. But we could have waited all that out.
Cat fiction
Knitting on the couch, it came to me like a flash of lightening in neon letters: Go back to the Netherlands! It was not a question, it was not a rational thought, it was an order, or an epiphany. I had not even contemplated ever going back so it was completely out of the blue. I called over to Wim what he thought about this, he paused to think for a nano second and nodded. When epiphanies happen it is meant to be. It all occurred very fast and in January 2017 we moved to Leeuwarden.
And it has completely worked out, even though we still do miss New Zealand. We both work parttime, only have to commute 10 minutes per bike, I have written a cat fiction book called My Name is Wilma, written from the point of view of our cat that I have also translated and edited for my Dutch readers. The books are available on Smashwords, among other stores. I have nearly finished the prequel Wilma’s Tulip Field Days that I will publish in both languages as a free prequel for my readers and subscribers. Wim is also enjoying life, working part-time for the first time ever, and loving being chosen chair of the works council.
Have you had any epiphanies in your life? I’d be interested in hearing. I might even write a book about epiphanies, just the sound of the word tingles.
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