Word for the Day going out in joy
Guest of the month Pamela Diane
BEING ME February's recap
February’s blog, with its theme “Who am I?” comes to a close.
I looked at both myself and the person
of Moses -
in birth, in childhood, as a spouse, a parent and grand-parent, a friend and neighbour, a home-maker and member of society, a restorer, teacher, listener and writer. I looked at some of the things that both myself and Moses drank, ate, wore and did, and also at the fact that life does not come our way without the reality of death.
in birth, in childhood, as a spouse, a parent and grand-parent, a friend and neighbour, a home-maker and member of society, a restorer, teacher, listener and writer. I looked at some of the things that both myself and Moses drank, ate, wore and did, and also at the fact that life does not come our way without the reality of death.
Did I, and did my readers, become
more comfortable with our identities, appreciating our natural gifts, our
learned talents, our abilities and capabilities, and our personalities? I hope
so!
And I hope that a better knowledge
of who we are makes us more able to express ourselves with confidence and
energy in our homes and in our communities.
The plant in the above photograph is one of our garden paw-paws. I think of the raindrops clinging to the branches as representing the tears that are just now clinging to my soul. The reason for my sadness is that by the end of next month, hubby and I will be out of our home, having just sold it. But, in reality we do "go out with joy" because we will live closer to some of our family in Toowoomba with its warm summers and cool winters, and with four distinct seasons. The city hosts the Australian Carnival of Flowers each September, and it has more than 150 public parks and gardens.
We have an adventure in front of us, with new people to meet and new things to do. And I am very excited to be taking my readers along with me as hubby and I make our exodus from our much loved home and garden.
I will have to make the name I carry, the name "Robyn",
become a constant reality for me,
as I sing my song in the new life that is before me.
The plant in the above photograph is one of our garden paw-paws. I think of the raindrops clinging to the branches as representing the tears that are just now clinging to my soul. The reason for my sadness is that by the end of next month, hubby and I will be out of our home, having just sold it. But, in reality we do "go out with joy" because we will live closer to some of our family in Toowoomba with its warm summers and cool winters, and with four distinct seasons. The city hosts the Australian Carnival of Flowers each September, and it has more than 150 public parks and gardens.
We have an adventure in front of us, with new people to meet and new things to do. And I am very excited to be taking my readers along with me as hubby and I make our exodus from our much loved home and garden.
I will have to make the name I carry, the name "Robyn",
become a constant reality for me,
as I sing my song in the new life that is before me.
Guest of the month Pamela Diane
15 years ago, my husband and I made the
decision to move from South Australia to Western Australia…a journey of over 2,700
kms. Just as Moses and the Israelites looked
forward to a wonderful life in the Promised Land, we looked forward to a new
life in a new state. Western Australia
offered my husband much better job prospects, while the beautiful beaches,
coastlines, rivers and laid-back lifestyle were extremely attractive to me. But first, we needed to convince our girls of this!
After our
enthusiastic discussion with them, we had one excited 18 year old, while the
other two (16 and 17) were devastated and refused to go. Good friendships had been forged over many
years, and leaving these friends would not be easy for an adult, let alone
hormonal teenagers! After many, many
weeks of tears, pleadings, negotiations and demandings, the result was that the 17 year old would stay (she had just left school) and the other two would come
with us…the youngest, about to do her final year of high school, was not
allowed to make her own decision on this, despite her desperately ‘arranging’
all sorts of accommodation alternatives that would have enabled her to stay.
After firstly securing at least one job for
us to go to, we went through the normal, busy preparations of moving: getting
the house ready to sell, culling 25 years of ‘stuff’ we had accumulated with
dump runs and garage sales, open inspections, nail biting decisions on offers less
than we wanted, trying to find a rental property from another state….until at
last we said a sad goodbye to our friends and our 17 year old, and found
ourselves on the plane…three excited but weary travellers, one young one
resigned to the cruel fate inflicted by her uncaring parents, and two sedated
dogs in the luggage hold. Our journey had begun!
On landing, not all went to plan. We arrived at the rental property we had
secured to find there were no keys to get in as promised. The furniture van arrived
(we had gone to such pains to have it arrive the same time we did), and they
had to deposit all our boxes and furniture on the driveway for us to physically
move (ie lift, haul, lug, sweat…all those things you pay the removalists to
do!) into the house when the keys finally arrived later.
When we eventually got into the house, we
weren’t greeted by a clean, pristine house like the one we’d all worked so hard
to leave spotless, but a dirty, cobwebby house.
So the tired travellers had to take to cleaning before preparing to move
those heavy boxes into the house. The
final straw for my poor 16 year old was when I opened the oven and literally
hundreds of cockroaches escaped their dark hideaway and invaded my new (but not
so clean) kitchen. With that, my poor
young one slid to the floor sobbing, her shoulders heaving, totally
inconsolable. What had I done, upheaving
and dividing my family, making them leave their friends and their lives, to
follow their parents’ dream?
Fast forward 15 years. One very happy and contented family. The then 17 year old still lives in South
Australia, and she has forged a wonderful life for herself and is following a promising
career. The then 18 year old who happily
came on our adventure with us, says it’s the best thing we ever did! My dear young one completed her final year of schooling, got on a plane back to South Australia supposedly for a
holiday, and couldn’t bear to return to Western Australia! However, she has since returned to the fold, and is
now very happily settled in her Western Australia life…along with her husband
and new baby. My husband and I just love
our life here!
Journeys don’t always go the way we
planned. Moses’ journey certainly didn’t! Ours certainly had some hiccups. But heading for destinations is part of life – whether those destinations are a physical
place, an emotional place or a spiritual place. I’m sure the struggles we have in getting to
our destinations are all part of our growth, and are well worth the benefits of reaching our personal ‘Promised Land.’
Thank you, Pamela Diane, for sharing with us part of your family's journey.
I look forward to starting a new 'Blog Theme' for March -
packing a Survival Bag and hopefully learning some survival techniques.
from Robyn
packing a Survival Bag and hopefully learning some survival techniques.
from Robyn
painting of robin by Brenda, my mum.