Sunday 22 January 2012

Happy New 2012

We travelled! We travelled 4,500kms across the bottom of Australia to vist family over East. And all the way we tic-tacked with a south coast storm.

By day we drove through and beyond it; watching its swirling mass of grey cumulus disappear to vapour in the rear-view mirror. By night she puffed right up next to us; rinsing the van of desert dust and like a lullabye rocking us with whistling gusts into uncertain sleep.

By the next morning we were ready again for the dance: chase and race.

We drove the longest stretch of straight road in the world, curved across the Great Bight and sidled along the Treeless Plain. We watched salt lakes disappear into surreal pink pools and salt-bush bend into granite-like balls.

Across this broad continent 'December Storm' had become our traveling companion. It felt almost sad to bid her farewell as we returned our hired camper to the yard and drove into an unfamiliar suburban landscape.

We had arrived in streaky creased road-trip clothes with suitably dusty feet to a throng of family for a family reunion and Christmas celebration. Intense humidity, excited humans and makeshift bed exhausted me yet the smile on my face could not be broader, fuller nor deeper. It was truly great to have arrived!

 Arrived in a city I had never visited before. Arrived in-tact and in good spirit. Arrived to celebrate! Celebrate family: young, middle and old. Arrived at the end of 2011. Arrived on the doorstep of 2012.

We ate, laughed, shared and cried. We remembered, reminisced and recited. We grew together again. Sewing old ties with new threads - new stories - new family - new generation.

Relieved of the full responsbility of day-to-day domestic mundanities, with so many others to share these tasks, I relaxed. Relaxed in to my childrens hearts, my husband's arms and the warmth and laughter of his family.

I softened as all the curly bits of the past year fell into thistory. I surrendered to a holiday pace and the wonder of seeing through uncluttered eyes - a new and exciting city caught my attention. Sparked my interest. My view became BIG again.

And while my view woke up - there's a whole BIG world out there - my heart deepened in - my family are my life. They are witnesses to my existence. They are there for me. As I am so here for them.

This year I will keep my heart and vision big and open - as I focus on the love that is close to me.

In 2012 I know that "My home is where my heart is: My heart is in my home". :-)


Happy New 2012 :-)