Streets of London

Rum is in a state of flux just now. There is lots of coming and going and change and upheaval. I strongly believe that change is good - let's face it, you don't drop a conventional life like we used to lead, head off in an old campervan and end up on a remote island living in a caravan if you are all about the status quo!

But it is unsettling and inevitably tears will be shed as we say goodbye to fellow islanders. If you live alongside folk and share the day to day stuff as we do here on our island then a big hole is left behind when they are suddenly no longer there any more. At least two people commented to me when we got back from our mainland trip that the island felt different without us here. At 10% or so of the island population I guess the four of us missing leaves a space. Particularly when you are as loud as we are!

So everything is being shaken up once more and before it all settles back down in a slightly different pattern there is this time of readjustment, of working out the new normal and everyone reasserting their place, finding their role and checking that nothing important has been moved or shaken up too much. Over the coming weeks and months we are likely to have people changing their address here on the island as some of the house occupants get jiggled about a bit. Some of the job roles will have new members of staff, several of the voluntary posts on the island will have different people filling them. There will be new faces, some of the familiar ones won't be here any more and this will take a while to process and get used to.

So why am I talking about Streets of London in the blog post title? It's because the inevitable politics surrounding some of the changes has had me pondering my stance on a few things and very briefly testing out some of my old mainland mentalities looking at what my neighbours might have, considering my sense of entitlement and judging what others deserve. I caught myself getting wound up and comparing what I have and what I want and what I'm worth. It didn't last long. I might need to remind myself of the words of the song once or twice in the coming weeks but I have it stored in my mind ready to press play whenever the need arises.

It turns out that for me the sun does shine....