2012 - The year of the rebuild

All around Christchurch at the moment there’s a lot of “deconstruction” going on.  The removal of damaged buildings and structures to clear the land for rebuilding the new.  It’s heart-breaking seeing buildings that have been part of my cityscape for decades being stripped out and torn down. 

From this…

 

 

 

…to this
Photo: http://www.stuff.co.nz

Photo supplied by Deb Donnell, author of Cafe Reflections on Christchurch City 1975-2011. Find out more at http://CafeReflectionsBooks.com/.

Photo: Christchurch City Libraries

I think that’s also a bit of a metaphor for how I’m feeling.  A part of my psyche has been damaged in some way, and has been “deconstructed” in a rather sudden, violent way on 22 February 2011. 

As I travel around my city I see too many empty spaces where there used to be something. Too many times I look at the gap and struggle to remember what used to be there. 

There’s also something inside me that feels like an empty gap, and I can’t remember what used to be there.  All I know is the hollow feeling that a part of me is missing.

http://www.gapfiller.org.nz/ has been working hard putting something creative into the empty spaces in the city, with ideas like:

Photo: http://www.gapfiller.org.nz/

Photo: http://www.gapfiller.org.nz/

And in Cashel Mall, where my world crashed down around me and changed my life, what looked like this:
Photo: Dean Norrie at www.starphotographers.net

Photo: Booksellers New Zealand

After a bit of this:
Photo: http://www.stuff.co.nz

now looks like this:

Photo: Mark Lincoln www.nzraw.co.nz

Photo: http://www.theoutsideoffice.co.nz/christchurch-nz-time-to-revisit/

Photo: Malcolm Locke

What was “dead” has now been resurrected into a new, vibrant life. 

So for myself, 2012 will be the year I rebuild emotionally, rebuilding Hope, Faith and Life into what will hopefully be a new, improved me.

(Edit 19/1/2012: Photo from Dean Norrie added)