A New Perspective

It is great what a little time away from this city can do for the soul. Loads of people I know are taking trips away this year. Partly to get just get away, partly to have something to look forward to and partly I think because having gone through everything here, you start to get an attitude of just do it - who knows what tomorrow will bring.
Before we left, on the last day of school, Lucy saw the book belonging to the friend she was drawing with at the time the big quake struck on Feb 22. She started to cry, the friend has moved away now and everything is different. Some tilt slab concrete buildings(see above) are starting to go up already. We began getting depressed about whether our worst fears of an ugly city might come true.
Then we went away to Melbourne. On the first night as I got into bed, a wee thought popped into my head - I could relax, I was going to get a good nights sleep, (no aftershocks to wake me). I hadn't realized I even thought this back in Christchurch.
We loved looking at all the old buildings and admiring their twiddly bits, most have fallen off our buildings here. It was great to hang out in a CBD and go to art galleries.
If people asked where we were from, they then asked about the quakes. It was hard to explain that the city was carrying on but the possibility of the next aftershock was a thing we lived with now everyday. It isn't like other natural disasters that come and then are gone, leaving the clean up.
We came home to snow - which was quite pretty and to hear good news. Exciting interesting things are happening like the cluster of high tech companies in town and the temporary cardboard cathedral. I noticed the buildings that are still here and there are some good ones left or at least ones they are going to fix. Other buildings, I now notice, that have previously been neglected. I wonder if we will start to value them and do them up.
The demolitions appear to be happening much quicker now. Once the buildings are gone, the gap is easier to look at than the broken building, it suggests something new, rather than a reminder of the past year's events.
Aftershocks are also staying minor. Last night I did wake up and wonder at the stillness, that was then interrupted by a shake. But it was just a shaking, nothing fell. It definitely feels like the city is moving forward. In June people began to voice fears that it would never stop but the despair has gone. While it continues to be calm, we can stand strong.