Ode to Nothing

Funny that all this sunny weather has got me thinking about all that's happened over the past year. I suppose it's because our first months in Sweden were so gorgeous that the weather has brought me back to the beginning of our time here. One reflection that I keep coming back to is how moving abroad, even somewhere as organized and safe as Sweden, makes you revert to a childlike state of not knowing. You don't know the language, how to get around town, the process for getting your kids in school, where to get your haircut, why everyone wears leggings all the time, etc. And there's beauty in not knowing because you get to challenge your assumptions about the way the world works because now if I do A and B it leads to D, not C. Hunh?? It's also very humbling because you sound like a big dork a lot of the time in the new language and you're always doing something culturally "wrong" - like getting angry at the bank teller or yelling too loudly at the park.

As someone who very much prefers to be right, being wrong a lot has been a good thing and has kind of shaken me back to being a nicer, more accepting person (I think). Adrian is always nice and humble so I haven't seen much of a change in him, bless him, but I have certainly seen the change in myself. So this is a mini ode to knowing nothing. I guess there's something to that Zen koan "only don't know" after all.