Australia
Living in this country has been an unexpected and bizarre trip. It might possibly be like those happenings in my life that came sort of easily.....or not easily, but at least presented themselves at a desperate moment when the highest desire had proved illusory or out of grasp.
Example: my move to New Mexico to study herbal medicine or moving back to Michigan with Chris, or buying the house in Fairgrove.
Here I am in this place I didn't exactly choose, but which became my best option when ideals spun out of control.
And, on many counts, it is what I asked for, if not what I envisioned.
first, there was the book that came to be in my hands years ago about the white woman's walkabout. Then there is the fact that of all the places in the world, my mother had said she'd always wanted to be a missionary in Australia...which, in her own language, essentially meant she wanted to live here. There was the book a friend lent me about Australia's history as a convict colony...and there were the times I flew to and from New Zealand and spent time in the Sydney airport thinking it wasn't the sort of place I ever wanted to even visit.
Hmmm.
However, it turns out that my true love and passion, beekeeping, is varroa free on this giant island, and I'd always wanted to be able to keep bees before that terror. There is honey flow nearly year round here, and keeping bees in the city is no problem.
Also, the climate. The weather is nearly always pleasant here. It gets nice and hot in the summer, which stretches from November through March, perfect for enjoying the myriad gorgeous ocean beaches, the spring and autumn are mild and sunny, and the winter never even brings a frost.
In my heart, New Zealand may still be paradise, but the opportunities to study yoga here and make money are simply not possible for me at this stage in that most magical of islands.
Yoga.
There is a discussion in itself. Suffice to say that there is no doubt I am exactly where I need to be for this purpose.
My last class, on Easter Monday (yes, the Aussies have found a way for an extra day off by calling monday Easter) led me to the Italian cafe where I perused the local paper, finding that there is an organic market a 20 minute walk from the yoga school. After my class this morning, I headed over.
I expected to be underwhelmed, as I usually am, by farmer's markets. They are great, and I gladly go to them, but today's market put them all in perspective, like Chinese squeeze bear honey versus fresh raw star thistle honey in the comb.
This market was a feast of all things fabulous. There were alpaca clothes from Peru, organic skin care and makeup from australia, honey from all over, Vitamix, hand made and woven handbags and dresses and hats and baskets, organic produce from the standard to the exotic....grains and coconut cream and mayan chocolate and coffee from actual Guatemalans....laurel camphor cutting boards, local grassfed jersey milk, every kind of organic meat and cheese and salt and spice and herb. There were mouth watering food stalls and breads and juices and books and flowers and plants. I was overwhelmed by seeing in one place the kind of abundance that this climate can produce. Granny Smith apples to limes to passion fruit to heirloom tomatoes to ginger to sugar cane.
There were organic sheets and pillows made of Eucalyptus fiber, Moroccan bowls and Virgin coconut oil.
This market made me feel that I have been deprived of abundance my entire life.
Last weekend, I spent a day hiking over and under cliffs and waterfalls in the bush, a day ferrying over to the north side of the harbor for a barefoot run and to watch the full moon rise over the sea as I ate my burger and ferried back home, and an afternoon at a world famous beach swimming into turquoise waves. All without needing to leave the city I reside in.
There are details of my life which are not at all what I planned or wanted, but the gifts being laid in my lap are not to be overlooked. Or under-appreciated. I have been mistaken in that before.
To my crystal rainbow magic islands: I love you always and ever (you'll know by the way I cheer your football teams and keep your greenstone close to my heart)
To the land of my birth: you are ever more beautiful and more deeply appreciated as I watch you from this distance
To the breathing ones here and gone which I love: I am blessed to have met you, to have held you and neither time nor space shall diminish the tenderness or the importance of your presence.
Amen
Om
Blessed Bee
Example: my move to New Mexico to study herbal medicine or moving back to Michigan with Chris, or buying the house in Fairgrove.
Here I am in this place I didn't exactly choose, but which became my best option when ideals spun out of control.
And, on many counts, it is what I asked for, if not what I envisioned.
first, there was the book that came to be in my hands years ago about the white woman's walkabout. Then there is the fact that of all the places in the world, my mother had said she'd always wanted to be a missionary in Australia...which, in her own language, essentially meant she wanted to live here. There was the book a friend lent me about Australia's history as a convict colony...and there were the times I flew to and from New Zealand and spent time in the Sydney airport thinking it wasn't the sort of place I ever wanted to even visit.
Hmmm.
However, it turns out that my true love and passion, beekeeping, is varroa free on this giant island, and I'd always wanted to be able to keep bees before that terror. There is honey flow nearly year round here, and keeping bees in the city is no problem.
Also, the climate. The weather is nearly always pleasant here. It gets nice and hot in the summer, which stretches from November through March, perfect for enjoying the myriad gorgeous ocean beaches, the spring and autumn are mild and sunny, and the winter never even brings a frost.
In my heart, New Zealand may still be paradise, but the opportunities to study yoga here and make money are simply not possible for me at this stage in that most magical of islands.
Yoga.
There is a discussion in itself. Suffice to say that there is no doubt I am exactly where I need to be for this purpose.
My last class, on Easter Monday (yes, the Aussies have found a way for an extra day off by calling monday Easter) led me to the Italian cafe where I perused the local paper, finding that there is an organic market a 20 minute walk from the yoga school. After my class this morning, I headed over.
I expected to be underwhelmed, as I usually am, by farmer's markets. They are great, and I gladly go to them, but today's market put them all in perspective, like Chinese squeeze bear honey versus fresh raw star thistle honey in the comb.
This market was a feast of all things fabulous. There were alpaca clothes from Peru, organic skin care and makeup from australia, honey from all over, Vitamix, hand made and woven handbags and dresses and hats and baskets, organic produce from the standard to the exotic....grains and coconut cream and mayan chocolate and coffee from actual Guatemalans....laurel camphor cutting boards, local grassfed jersey milk, every kind of organic meat and cheese and salt and spice and herb. There were mouth watering food stalls and breads and juices and books and flowers and plants. I was overwhelmed by seeing in one place the kind of abundance that this climate can produce. Granny Smith apples to limes to passion fruit to heirloom tomatoes to ginger to sugar cane.
There were organic sheets and pillows made of Eucalyptus fiber, Moroccan bowls and Virgin coconut oil.
This market made me feel that I have been deprived of abundance my entire life.
Last weekend, I spent a day hiking over and under cliffs and waterfalls in the bush, a day ferrying over to the north side of the harbor for a barefoot run and to watch the full moon rise over the sea as I ate my burger and ferried back home, and an afternoon at a world famous beach swimming into turquoise waves. All without needing to leave the city I reside in.
There are details of my life which are not at all what I planned or wanted, but the gifts being laid in my lap are not to be overlooked. Or under-appreciated. I have been mistaken in that before.
To my crystal rainbow magic islands: I love you always and ever (you'll know by the way I cheer your football teams and keep your greenstone close to my heart)
To the land of my birth: you are ever more beautiful and more deeply appreciated as I watch you from this distance
To the breathing ones here and gone which I love: I am blessed to have met you, to have held you and neither time nor space shall diminish the tenderness or the importance of your presence.
Amen
Om
Blessed Bee
posted by hymenoptera's honey at 3:38 AM
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