Gorgeous Bribie Islanders and to those who are visiting our home, hello! I hope you are enjoying the coastal breezes and last minute Summer storms that are sweeping our bay. The other day I was paddling along Bongaree near the Jetty when I saw heavy, dark clouds brooding in the distance over Redcliffe. Even though it was still bright and sunny where I was swimming I knew that in just under an hour rain would be falling upon our land. How refreshing.
I think we are more than blessed to be living in a fairly untouched community in terms of the environment. Our Island is roughly 24km long and most of it is a national park. I pray it stays that way. I do enjoy development and growth for business in our local community and welcoming new faces to our shores. But a part of me desires for the land to remain untouched forever; a sanctuary for natural Australian wildlife and the odd explorer/camper. Living in the type of environment that we have helps us to remain in touch with the elements of the earth.
The ocean and shoreline along with their mangroves, shrub, and wildlife are at our fingertips and we are healthier for it! But I feel for our fellow humans who are farther away from natural resources and are somewhat trapped in concrete, wires and invisible signals. That is a personal choice, personally, it makes me sad. Out of everything that I’ve been taught growing up through secular schooling, I am most grateful for being given the tool of communication.
Without it, I would not be typing on my laptop right now. But my gratitude seems to halt at around this point as I reflect on the knowledge and skills that I lack. Basic life skills that are relevant to the community we are directly born into. Don’t you ever feel that we are out of touch with the land? I watch our weather, I can feel it around me, but I want to know it and where it comes from, where it is going and how our land interacts and is affected and in turn affects the weather.
Don’t you ever want to sit in a single spot and know and feel the geography all around you? To know your bearings and be aware of the highs and lows and depths and curves of the land and feel your relationship to it. Don’t you want to know how the amount of rain and when it comes affects the kind of fish and their quantities are in our passage? Or what fauna and flora are synced to our seasons? What birds migrate to this special part of the world when it’s their time.
My heart smiles at that thought and desires to be in touch with it greatly. I want to encourage you my fellow man and woman and child, to disconnect a little from the virtual landscape which you are so in touch with and reconnect with the physical. Get earthed: feel the grass, the sand, the sea, the rock under your feet and around your body. Don’t be afraid of the sun in the sky.
Drink it in and get kissed a little by it. Smile at being a unique creation that has a relationship with others, the land – our Great South Land of the Holy Spirit – and the animals. See you ‘round town. x