“Her beauty and her terror. The wide brown land for me……”
So, here we are at the beginning of the new year. 2018.
I’ve just returned to Sydney after a magnificent 4 week very Australian family holiday.
I can honestly say, it was one of the best we’ve had.
4 weeks of just being:
Being with family.
Being with nature.
Being with friends.
Reconnecting to this beautiful land we are again calling home.
Last year bought with it a great many changes – I guess thats why the number 555 kept appearing in my life!
Jules and I were exhausted, both emotionally and physically.
It was time for rest, relaxation and reconnection.
It was decided. We would jump in our car and do a road trip through three states – just to reacquaint ourselves with this vast and beautiful country.
I have always loved road trips. It doesn’t matter how long they are, I never tire.
Off the freeway and out on the open road, this ancient and wise land stretching out before us, mother earth exposed in all her glory.
Surprisingly there wasn’t a lot of music or a lot of chat, the occasional dulcet tones of Bernard Fanning when it was my turn to drive, and familiarising ourselves with Songs Of Experience every now and then but on the whole, it was time to just soak it all back in – with little or no distractions.
The air outside was hot – 41 degrees – a typical Aussie summer. The light was refracting on the highway ahead, water-like puddles in the distance, disappearing and then reappearing as we go.
And the sky, my goodness, the sky!
You just forget about the sheer enormity of it. Vast, endless and perfectly blue, falling down effortlessly to kiss the gnarled and weather-beaten earth beneath it.
The Hay Plain stretched on and on and just when you thought it could stretch no further, it did just that. Hundreds of kilometres of lifeless, barren land – extraordinary.
It offered us a chance to pause; to reflect; to go within.
Over the weeks we covered over 3,000kms.
My favourite stretch being Melbourne to Sydney, stopping along the way for a bite to eat at The Long Track Pantry in Jugiong, the stifling, still, 42 degree heat hitting you in the face as you go from air-conditioned comfort to the oppressive heat outside; flies buzzing noisily around our faces, a stillness that can only accompany a harsh Australian summer.
This stretch of land was enchanting and in parts took my breath away.
You could see the brushstrokes of Albert Namatjira, of Sidney Nolan and Fredrick McCubbin, that unmistakable all Australian landscape. The majestic, old gums, en masse, sticking up out of shards of ochre rock – it was unmistakable, unforgettable and undeniably Australian.
The landscape was in parts wild and untamed and you could sense the spirit of the land whistling and caressing through the shrubs and trees.
She’s not to be messed with this land, her ancient wisdom, her sacred spirit, her volatility, her unpredictability, stretching out for miles in front of our eyes.
“……Her beauty and her terror. The wide brown land for me”.
It was a magnificent four weeks of reconnections and for me particularly, a theme I will continue to explore throughout the year.
Reconnecting to home, to friends and loved ones I haven’t seen much over the last decade. Reconnecting to the wild nature of this sacred land, reconnecting to spirit at every opportunity, reconnecting to my Divine Goddess – Lilith – or Lola as we like to call her.
As I mentioned in my last post, this a Universal 11 year and a personal 7 year for me. It is a time for privacy, solitude and quietness; for working on my magic in the form of manifestation and the laws of abundance; it brings with it the energy of truth, wisdom, dignity, fulfilment and perfection.
I can’t wait to again share my spiritual journey with you all and wish everyone a year full of love, joy, wonder and magic.
Yours in love and light
Rachael xxx