Christmas Reflections

Last week an old friend from the coast came to visit. He came up the drive through brown paddocks crying for rain, in temperatures closer to 40 than 30, over a rough and rocky road. For the life of him he couldn’t work out why we lived here. Put on the spot I struggled to articulate a convincing answer but on reflection I found the words:

• Because I can wake in the morning on my time, next to one I love, and peer through open French doors into the arms of a jacaranda tree where the resident bower bird and willie wagtail babies break into chorus;
• Because I feel a connection to nature and to land that is lost to most of society; a connection primal and fundamental, a truth real and raw;
• Because I feel privileged to know and take care of country and livestock; to understand what I don’t know exceeds what I do. And always will;
• Because of the space (some call it isolation, I call it peace) with the freedom to work on my terms, to be myself without judgment, and just to be;
• Because I live in a community that knows me by name, knows my dogs by name, drives me crazy and is family;
• Because only when you’ve known dry, and your livelihood depends on the weather, can you really appreciate rain on a tin roof;
• Because there is something quite extraordinary about patting a calf on the head – before it is born;
• Because at day’s end I can retire to a quiet veranda and once again hear only birdsong ….. and cattle calling and dogs barking.

This is why I live where I live.

Merry Christmas to you all.