Seven Years

It is seven years since we moved to Birmingham. Maybe not exactly today, but this summer marks spending seven years in a place I have come to love as home.

There is particular significance to this for me because it means Birmingham is now the place I have lived longer than anywhere else in my life, overtaking the place in which I spent my distinctly less happy and less fulfilled teenage years. 

If we weren't in the midst of a global pandemic I'd undoubtedly have considered throwing a party to celebrate, sharing the occasion with some of the many who have been part of the journey to making this place home. Hey ho, 'tis not to be this time: a slightly rambling blogpost will have to suffice by way of marking the moment!

It doesn't feel so very long ago that I was accustomed to being told by others that my addresses needed their own page in their address book because there had been so many of them. I have certainly gone through phases of changing location at frequent intervals: following the next opportunity to other parts of the country or in some cases, the world. Some I still return to at intervals, some I guess, there is a strong likelihood I will never even visit again. Many, perhaps all, are rich in the memories who have shaped the me I am today.

But here we are, in Birmingham: seven years and counting, with no plans to move on from this place any time soon. Initially my love for Birmingham took me somewhat by surprise. The sense of connectedness to this place which gradually crept up on me, likewise. But I have discovered a new appreciation for the semi-solid foundations I have built here. In a way that has perhaps never been true before, I have put down roots and built community and connections which tie me to a geographical locality. Where once I feared that these kinds of ties would feel restrictive somehow, here, I have discovered that they don't. 

I could probably write at length about the host of interrelated reasons why Birmingham has held me in a way that nowhere else has: but I suspect most or all have probably made sufficient appearances in a blog post (or several) in the intervening years and don't need to be repeated here. 

This is not a post which intends to pretend that Birmingham is perfect: I would be the first to admit that it isn't. Nor am I declaring that I have found somewhere I will settle for ever: who knows what the future might hold and where it might take me. But it is an acknowledgement, I guess of my sense of connection and attachment to this place. 

One thing is certain, I don't believe that staying here for so long (by my standards) means that life has somehow become static, nor that I have lost my desire for newness and adventure. That which in the past I have found by switching location, I have continued to discover amidst the new opportunities and new encounters which have continued to enrich my life here in this place. 

The adventure continues. Here. For now at least.