Therapy Leaving Kapiti – Psychotherapist Nov. ’23
In Therapy Leaving Kapiti (Friends of Kapiti Library Competition, Sept., 2017)
The government bought our two-acre property for an expressway to go through half of it. They provided three counselling sessions to help with the loss. This is an imagined conversation with my counsellor.
Counsellor (C): So it’s a new life for you away from the captivating Kapiti Coast?
Me: Yes, the time has come, lived here 16 years, visited off and on for many years before that.
C: I’ve been here all my life, love it, can’t imagine wanting to leave. Is there something driving you to leave?
Me: That’s a vexing verb under our circumstances … driven from our paradise by a motorway.
C: Slip of the tongue, sorry. So you’re happy to be going, feeling that your condition will be all right with a big move?
Me: My “condition”! This is only a mild and temporary down-feeling.
C: All right, I can sense you’re feeling better.
Me: I’ve never been unwell actually. Just that things took a turn for the worse with the motorway going through our two-acre Shangri-la. Such a sad thing the destruction of nature we’ve enjoyed and loved, really gnaws at my innards … you know, someone said not to worry about the birds and creatures, they can go somewhere else. And a politician said there will always be winners and losers. Living must be simpler for some people.
C: You feel you feel too much?
Me: No, just got some feeling for the environment and a lot of animosity over the loss of our cottage, fish pond, fruit trees, rhododendrons, natives, flaxes, tuis, kereru and “naked ladies”.
C: Ah, ah … amaryllis by any other name … . I agree about the road to some extent – the destruction will be terrible – but they’ll make good with ponds and other features, plant trees, put up noise barriers … .
Me: Could be “a terrible beauty born”! I see just a four-lane ashphalt strip ruining our coastal character, splitting communities, much more difficult for people to stop off … and all in the name of spending money on infrastructure. Did you know that the traffic has been reducing over the past 10 years?
C: But think of the choke points, the peak-hour traffic, the holiday gridlocks … .
Me: Oh, there are always yea-sayers for so-called progress at any cost … . (Pensive a moment). What do you love about the Coast?
C: The island – a sanctuary for wildlife, the gem of the Kapiti Coast, its forested facets and ever-changing colours in our varied weather … and the history – Te Rauparah used to paddle his canoe up the swamp from South Raumati to Waikanae.
Me: That’ll be good to recall when you’re driving on the new road.
C: Where will you go to? Any ideas?
Me: The Winterless North, the remote subtropics, as far away as possible from any possibility of a new road being built.
C: No more eviction and loss.
Me: Ah, but we’ll take fond and abiding memories of life among nature on the Kapiti Coast. (498 words)