Good times and gratitude [The Mad Nomads]

We are stationary for a week or two in beautiful Johns River to help a friend build a new kitchen in the Johns River Hall. This lovely little village is north of Taree in the shadow of Middle Brother Mountain. North Brother is up near Laurieton where we go to shop.

Aboriginal dreaming stories talk of an invisible goanna spirit called Dirawong who created this country, the seas, mountains and creatures and provided for the local people….he still looks after the land here and the mountains do have a mystical feel about them.

The souls of three brothers who were killed by a wicked old woman lie around the mountains while the goanna spirit looks after art, ceremony, foods, medicines, places, laws, song lines and stone objects.So many places we have visited have similar stories and I wonder if the creator is the one shared by every religion and culture around the world and who appears in local guise to look after local people.

I was thinking about the diversity of what we have seen in three and a half years on the road and yet the sameness of it as per the above.

The trees are magical everywhere…the boabs in the Kimberley are like families. There are groups with grandparents, middle-aged members of the community and children and babies. They all look like they’re squatting in groups having a picnic.

In Alice we lived under Ghost Gums for eight months and were surrounded by the River Red Gums. They have white specks on their leaves at the end of spring that taste delicious…sweet and eucalyptussy. They fall on the ground like snow and are part of the bush tucker menu…they are bush sweets.

The Karri’s in Western Australia are mighty and towering and reach right up to the sky and all over Australia the wild flowers are like the jewels of the forest. They make us aware of how lucky we are just to be there and see them.

That brings me to gratitude. Over the years I have had a guru called Sue Langley who holds seminars all over the world that show people the tools to use to bring happiness into their lives. She worked with our Camp Quality staff to help them cope with their work.

First and foremost, Sue has helped me understand how choice is the key to happiness. In any situation you can choose to accept it or fight it, choose to enjoy it or rail against it, choose to forgive or to hold poison and blame which only affects you, not those who you blame. But most important is gratitude.

Every night before I go to bed I think of the good things in my life…I think actively of what they are.

My family is first, this beautiful land looms large, the fact that I am able to live this wonderful wandering life is important…if you are grateful you actively realise how much in your life is good and because you think of it you enjoy it.

Have you ever seen the Pinnacles in the sun in the red soil of Western Australia? We had a wonderful young Brahmin Bull called Spot living with us in Bitter Springs and flowers were his favourite food. Feeding Spot was beautiful…this happy white bull surrounded by colour.

In South Australia, I kissed a Diprotodon at Narracorte Caves…this made me think of all the animals that have gone before us and how they shaped the world as it is. We are lucky they existed…thank you guys.

There are crocodiles along 35 kilometres of the Victoria River…a big one on every bend. We saw them at sunset and they represented all the big reptiles on every river in the Top End. They are thriving after so many millennia and they will outlive the entire human race.

I am grateful for the opportunity to work with a wonderful elderly Aboriginal man, Alec Ross OAM in Alice Springs. A gentle man with very strict views on behaviour whose family included his great, great grandfather John Ross, who determined the final route of the overland telegraph line. Alec showed me how, with personal pride and care, aboriginal people can change their whole outcome themselves without relying on others to do it for them by choosing to care about themselves.

And Alec actually lived what Sue Langley teaches…he personally chose his own path and he is unforgettable for this reason. It’s called “Mindfulness” by many people.

Yes I am lucky living the dream that many people have but I don’t take it for granted…I have chosen how to feel about the bad things in life and therefore have put them behind me faster than if I had just let them rule me.

Many of the things I see every day are wonderful…how about you? Do you choose how you see things? Or do you just react and get carried along feeling powerless?