Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins.
Strong love of grey-blue distance,
Brown streams and soft, dim skies -
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of rugged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!
The stark white ring-barked forests,
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon,
Green tangle of the brushes
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops,
And ferns the warm dark soil.
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die –
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.
An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land –
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand –
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
- Dorothea McKellar
I love my country. In body, mind and spirit, I am an Australian. I'm an "ocka"... I say things like "g'day" and "maaaate" and I wear thongs on my feet. I eat Four'n'Twenty pies for lunch, and put Vegemite on my toast. I love Aeroplane Jelly. I have friends who are "bogans", and I know that roos are dangerous if you get too close. Koalas are not cute and cuddly, they have sharp claws. And most of all, I know that Australia is bloody unreal.
But I have an opportunity to travel, to leave my beloved Australia and visit the land "of fields and coppice, of green and shaded lanes". And I just don't know what to do.
My friend, in England, is having a baby. I'm so excited for her, this baby will be showered with love and adoration. Partly in jest, I offered to go and be her nanny, and from there, a discussion about the reality of such happenings took off. It would be easy enough for me to get my visa and passport to work there. I would live with my friend, and of course, be employed by her. And now... now this is a very real possibility for me, and I am a little scared if I am honest.
Do I leave my home, family, friends... my cockatoos and lorikeets, my green hills and brown land and pristine beaches for England... or do I stay, regretting my decision not to go?
I have some thinking to do, and a decision to make.
5 comments:
Kit - Whatever you decide, your life will hold another journey... And that's exciting!!
One could take you to a new land, one will keep you where you are. Each journey has its up and down sides. But it's not as if you could never return to where you are... Home is always home.
Remember that as you're thinking. Adventure awaits you. All you have to do is reach for it... How exciting!
If you don't go, you will miss seeing something wonderful. Not better than Oz, just different. The forests, the birds, the wonderful old churches and villages. The cathedrals - stained glass windows that are breath taking.
Even Morris Dancers at the pub. Yeh, I know, sounds naff. It isn't, believe me on this one!
My advice, for what it's worth is...
GO FOR IT!
Traveling does not mean leaving your beloved homeland forever. In my experience, leaving what you know and love only helps to put that person, place or thing into perspective. Though you are broadened by your experience, your love or identity that thing that is so much a part of you only deepens.
Reflect on your feelings. Is it leaving your homeland or something else that is causing the hesitation? Vet it all and then decide.
and if You don't take advantage of this endeavor, You will forever wonder !!
Just maybe..........its what Your supposed to do ?!?!?!?
another consideration,.... what this may add to Your resume
just some thought, I'm sure You have considered ?!
Ray
for what it is worth. i was born in New Hampshire (just like Jed Bartlet (!!!)). But moved to Boston.
when i was six weeks old i moved to Sydney.
When i was two years old i moved back to Boston.
When I was 16 years old I moved to Sydney.
When I was 32 years old I moved to Melbourne.
When I was 34 years old I (and my wife and 2 year old daughter and our cat!!!) moved to Boston.
When I was 39 years old I moved back to Melbourne.
in the Year 2000 we moved to the Dandenongs (having lived in Wheelers Hill and Rowville). So we have been here for nearly 8 years! i have no intention of moving anywhere else.
But, each time i/we moved it was going to be permanent. which proves that nothing is permanent.
so, go ahead, do it. you will have fun!
-- Joel.
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