Regret. Moving Onward.

So it is official. After a year of telling myself, "Everything happens for a reason" and searching in vain for some hidden meaning within the awful, terrible, no good decision to leave Zürich, I have finally stopped. The jig was up when I saw this photo on Instagram. Climbers actually placed these lights on the Matterhorn to illuminate the route of the first ascent on its 150th anniversary earlier this month. I had always planned that during our last year in Switzerland, we would buy a GA so that we could zip off without restraint to see things like this and get to my list of hikes I was always too pregnant or not yet fit enough to complete. Sigh. We're not going to see those lights on the Matterhorn.

Fact: We never should have left Zurich and life would have been infinitely better if we had stayed. 

But we didn't. 

The very first moment we could, we got out of Duluth and came back home to the Northwest.  Now we are taking a year to recalibrate, recharge and reevaluate. On the one hand, it is hard to be unemployed, starting from scratch and feeling the sharp pang of regret. On the other hand, we came out on top with a paid move and signing bonuses that funded those last unforgettable European vacations before leaving. Another fact: The longer we had settled in, the harder it was going to be to ever leave Zurich. 

So is it out of the question that we would ever go back? Of course not. But for now, we are living in America, eating Mexican food almost daily and being close to family is pretty hard to beat.