And so it begins.

Dorking, United Kingdom.

April 1st 2012. 

This morning Judy and I scattered the ashes of our dog Paddington on Cotmandene, a hill above Dorking. We laid him to rest amongst the daffodils, close to his favourite grassy sward. 
Knowing that every time we come back here there will be a little part of his spirit drawn down into the ground gives us comfort.... he's been a wonderful companion for 11 years.


Today is the first day of my life outside of medicine! 32 years ago, I qualified at the London Hospital and now, this new chapter begins as we prepare to set sail aboard Queen Mary 2 on June 10th this year.
We arrive in Brooklyn on the 17th June and will drive north to Peruville, near Ithaca, where we are renting a property set on 62 acres of land: four ponds, beavers, deer, chipmunks... our own Walden Pond experience for a year or so...


We are leaving England after being married for nearly 12 years and, for Judy, it is a return home to the USA that she left in the spring of 2000. At the time she had had no idea that she would be going back to live there one day!


On Friday, 330 people gathered together in the village of Oxshott to say goodbye to me; a reception that was magnificent and generous for I was given a gift of funds that will buy us an original Lyman Whittaker wind sculpture for our future garden. 


So here we are: a life renewed and new.

Nicholas


We have been preparing for this moment for over five years. 


When Nicholas turned 50 we took a trip to the American West, the vast landscapes and beauty of the National Parks of Utah and Arizona...Zion, Bryce, Canyonlands, Arches and the Grand Canyon were a siren call to his artist and my spirit, time to go home to the land of the free and the home of the brave. 


It took nearly all of the last two years to put things in place financially and legally, but as they say, we now have most of our ducks in a row and we are in the final stages of preparing to move across the ocean. 


Fourteen years ago, if anyone would have told me I would fall in love with an Englishman, leave NYC and my acting career and move to a medieval market town in the Southeast of England, I would have laughed at them...and then if twelve years ago anyone would have told me I would do it all again....but going west to America from England with my beloved Nicholas ... I would have laughed even louder!!!


This is my life, I listen to my heart and my heart rarely gets it wrong. I am grateful that the voice of logic and reason tends to be drowned out by my passion and my intuition and I am even more grateful that my ability to listen to the wisdom in the quiet, the urging from the deep stillness, has grown easier with age.


So, Nicholas has retired from 32 years of being a physician and I have decided to take a well-earned sabbatical from my healing practice as we create this new beginning, this new chapter of our story.


Judy