Leaving on a jet plane

So we're off to the grey green shores of England. If our visas get approved, that is. Though I'm relatively confident that while we may be mad, we're not the sort of people the UK needs to worry about protecting its borders from.

If it all comes through, then we plan to leave around mid-September. Soon!

My friend Joy said that when she and her husband Jim left Christchurch a couple of years ago, they had a song that they played as they left. I recall that they felt a bit sad about leaving behind so many friends and good memories from their time at University and early-career days, but I can't remember what their song was.

I can't speak for Adam, but I know that for me, leaving Christchurch is very bittersweet. Christchurch is my home. I have lived there (or within 30 minutes drive of)for my whole life, I went to University there, I met and married my husband there. It is my home. And yet after the events of the last ten months, I have never felt so afraid and anxious and hopeless as I do in Christchurch. My home.

So while I am looking forward to the wonderful adventures that await us, it is with sadness that I leave the land which I love. Part of me would love to play U2's 'Gone' as I get on that plane. With a middle finger raised towards the city that birthed me. And yet the rest of me is weeping for this beautiful city I have loved for so long, and feeling its brokenness deep within me. But I haven't found a song to express that yet.

What song would you play if you left Christchurch today?