Spending time in solitude can be exhausting as you only have your mind to distract you. My mind can be spinning and jumping and I know it is me who sets the assault course, I can only blame myself.
Following a period of distraction and hurdles that have been too difficult for me to jump through. I felt the urge to phone back to base and talk with one of my kids. I had a stressful conversation with my daughter the night before over her anxiety over exams. It was good to hear my son Joes voice, he was the only one awake, it was early evening in New York, where he was studying to be an actor. I could hear the busy traffic in the background.
Why do they all have to be so far away?
Oh yes, my independent kids were bought up that way. Families spread out, My family were taught to spread their wings, so how can I complain.
I am in Tasmania visiting descendants of two cousins who waved goodbye to their homeland and were able to spread their wings. They became £10 Pommies in search of a better life, well I think that must have been the reason or maybe they just had the sense of adventure and wanted something different. They certainly achieved that. I found out about them through some research I was doing on my family and discovered I have relatives on this side of the world.
Joe has found his element and merrily went on to tell me he had just auditioned in front of a New York Agent. He is happy, he says excitedly, I have no desire to come back to the Uk or Europe. America is big and there are more opportunities here, plus people pat you on the back when you do well. Why should he not have that opportunity? I am glad we didn’t listen to his teachers and what they perceived was his route to happiness.
My mood is lifted. It is time to stop looking at a computer screen and come up for some air. I venture out for a walk, it is windy and my red scarf is flapping over my face. I am on top of a hill in Hobart and the only way is down. I did not notice the lady walking towards me until she asked me, what I thought was going to be a request for directions. Before I could say I am only a visitor she said, ‘Hello, are you having a nice walk?”
Did I know her?. Of course not, how could I? after only being here for a mere four days.
She told me I looked deep in thought so I asked her for the directions to the nearest coffee bar. ‘I will walk with you’ she insisted and introduced herself as Linda, ‘then you should go and see the boats in the bay and the pretty little houses with wooden verandas and metal painted fretwork.’
As I followed her , we talked as if we were familiar old friends. In our brief walk of ten minutes, she told me all about her daughter and the troubles she had experienced. Her daughter had been struggling with a drug addiction. Seeing her daughter in this way had broken her heart. How she wished she could travel as I was doing and she envied my freedom. At the end of the road I realised how lucky I was to have such a wonderful family as she waved goodbye and went on her way.
A complete stranger, did she drop down from the clouds I wonder?
All my kids are following their own paths. It will be tough but they have the strength to get through things if they keep their eyes open and stay in their element. It may not make them rich in wealth but at least they will be doing something they feel passionate about. If it is only about the money and they do not achieve it, there is nothing else, so I hope they will stay with what makes them happy and fulfils them.
I believe we always should look beyond a system that forces you to determine your fate with paper qualifications. I tell my daughter to not get stressed as she revises but she is caught in the middle of a system that requires it. It should not be so and it makes me angry. I want her to know real life has a lot more to offer and cannot be decided by anyone other than yourself. She can walk freely through it in a lifetime ahead, there is no rush.
If there are angels, allow them to drop in occasionally with a little message. They know a lot more than we do, you have to learn to listen, open your mind, it is amazing what you will hear. I am coming to the end of my travels. I am going to Melbourne but I am thinking of home. My home. My little casita in Spain. I guess it is what I must come back to for the moment. My element is in many things and I am beginning to feel creative again. Writing is wonderful but it is lonely with characters bordering reality. They have travelled with me and have been troublesome at times. I am packing them away, until it is time to bring them to life again. Staying connected with a family who have spread their wings all over this planet, brings them close to home wherever that maybe. We can talk and send pictures to each other thanks to technology. Home can be anywhere even on top of a Hill in Hobart, a busy street in Jaipur or a desk facing an ocean. Home resides in your heart and sometimes you just need an angel to drop in and walk with you to remind you of that.
