I’m moving to Cambodia
With just a carry-on and two cats
This is the first of many personal dispatches on culture, healing, and spirituality from a dual Canadian-American living in Southeast Asia. Find popular free essays here and access to the rest of Sober Soulful (including the Sobriety Series) by upgrading here:
Much change happens so slowly that we only notice after it’s well underway or already over. Years pass, decades pass. We’re carried along.
Then there’s the kind of change that arrives suddenly, unannounced, and rearranges our lives in an instant. We were one way before, another way after.
Between these extremes—between nearly imperceptible shifts and sudden upheaval—we find another kind of change. One in which we consciously approach a doorway, stand at the threshold, and consider. We’re just two steps away from a new life, a new version of ourselves.
And while we can guess and predict and imagine what the other side looks like, we don’t know really. The only way to find out is to step over the threshold and find out for ourselves.
Choosing sobriety was like that, for me. And now, preparing to move from Canada to Cambodia this June feels like that too. I’m here again, standing at a threshold.
I’ll share more about leaving Nova Scotia once logistics are sorted and my nerves are more settled. For today, I’m sharing a few details after the paywall, including:
Why Cambodia (and why it’s not where originally planned)
Thoughts on moving someplace we’ve never been (and taking just carry-ons and two cats)
How standing at this threshold evokes excitement and joy, but also fear and grief
A request for your shares, thoughts, and advice
Some personal news
The change ahead is a big one, and I’m not sure how to talk about it without sounding dramatic.