Take a moment each day to notice that I love my life

I am a 911 dispatcher. When people hear that they say “wow… I could never do that” and most of the time I say “oh its nothing”. But you know what… it is something and its not an easy job – in fact its pretty freaking hard. But I do it… and I love it! Its hard to send officers, men and women that I love, into a situation where they could get hurt or killed. Its hard to listen to crap a lot. Its hard to see how high school kids have no respect for the police and throw rocks at the police cars to smash their windows out. Don’t they realize that those rocks could seriously injure a human being.. but they don’t realize that. They see a form of authority and want to fight it. Yeah.. I could go on and on.. but I do love it. Not everyone can do it.

since awakening in 2008 to the amazing lift of being grateful each day, i have been practicing daily gratitude and appreciation at the wonderful life that i have. yesterday i was riding my bike through the golden light of afternoon, down the Lister Mile- a pedestrian-only street lined with cafes and boutiques, and picked up my new friend to go to a cafe and listen to live opera in an intimate setting. it was absolutely incredible.

I love my boys. They are 21 and 19. As a mom I was always worried that they slip down that slippery path downward or that something would happen to them. From toddlers to teenagers I always hoped that they would be safe and no danger would come to them. It was hard lots of times to take a step back and let them make their own mistakes and feel hurt. Today they are fine young men, loving life and have goals and ambitions. I know every day that some kind of harm may come to them but so far so good! Thats what I love about my life today.

I really do love my life, the freedom i have to create the life i want. The support i have wherever i go. I am in an amazing place on my journey right now. I am in a new city , i dont really know many people and i am hearing more clearly what it is i do want. I have faced a lot of fear i didn’t know i had and i love it because its bringing me back to myself , what i want, how i want to live my life.

Its so easy to quickly become negative about Christmas but I have nothing at all to be negative about. I may not have enough time to do all the things I want to do in my head to make it perfect, but I have enough time, enough money and a nice life to make it just right for me and my family.

I live in such a beautiful state. The weather is perfect all the time. The mountains, the ocean , the sunshine. Ah I love my life.

In order to appreciate life you have to simply stay in the moment and see what you have.

One of the most beautiful aspects of travel is the community one encounters. Our western lives sometimes become sterilised by independence and seem to lack the inter-dependence of relationships between people of different ethnicities. However a short encounter had this afternoon reminded me that one does not have to travel to another continent to experience such community. As I’m preparing to pack up my house and sell my belongings in light of my travel plans, I had an Indian lady and her mother come to look at a couch I was planning to sell. Within only a few moments I was captivated by her vivacious descriptions of how she’d laid out her house, what furniture she had and the creative artistry that had gone into fashioning a home that gave expression to who she was. After seeing my renovated garage, she rang her husband and I gave them the grand tour of my house. For one hour we talked, we laughed, we discussed interior design, spherical balls, photography, India, Hinduism, Angkor Wat, the inspiration behind some of the paintings I’d done and an endless tapestry of interwoven conversations. They left me with the offer to help pack boxes even though they had known me for less than an hour. As well as endowing me with a longing to return to India, I closed the door behind them feeling that surely there is nothing more beautiful on this earth than the extended arms of humanity.

I walked through a field of sunflowers, who would have thought such a simple meander through nature’s splendour could afford such a beautiful moment in time. There’s something so compelling about sunflowers, they never look forlorn for even when their season is ending – their broad faces are forever inclined towards the sun. The parched cracked earth beneath my feet looked arid and plain until one’s gaze shifted upward to the long extended green stalks upon which grew these munificent and glorious flowers. As I walked through these fields I reflected on a quote I had read long ago from Helen Keller, she wrote “Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It’s what sunflowers do.” What a beautiful emblem by which we should direct our lives.

...these are a few of my favourite things… The open road always unveils beautiful pockets of nature hidden away from the tourist route and is embellished by some of the more unique characteristics of a landscape such as country letterboxes that give life and colour to endless terrain. I took a drive on the weekend through southern New South Wales and encountered some of the most beautiful country of Australia that I have seen thus far. As diverse as it was beautiful, the topography of the landscape encompassed undulating green hills, vast open flood plains, the rugged beauty of Kosciusko and its surrounding mountains, the stilled magic of Lake Jindabyne, small east-coast seaside villages with long wooden jetties straddled over crystal blue water, the lush fertility of Kangaroo Valley, rusted tin milking sheds, majestic old windmills and small country towns lined with tall poplars whose green leaves were turning shades of copper and gold.

Whenever I travel, I always seem to find myself drawn into the presence of mountains. I spent a night at Mt Thredbo on the southern border of NSW and watched the crimson and amethyst light of evening descend between the mountain ranges… it was truly beautiful. I went for a walk by moonlight along the silently flowing alpine river whose waters cast reflection of the starlit sky. I had dinner at an Italian restaurant whose snowy-alp charm was outdone only by its exquisite food. I breathed in the fresh mountain air and found myself at once rejuvenated by life.

I think most of us spend far too much time in the cities, we live in suburbia, we drive not walk, we work in city skyscrapers and industrial estates, we shop at large conglomerate food chains, and we find our relaxation in the improvised pamperings of the modern life – massages, facials and the like… we spend far too little time outdoors in the serene beauty of nature. In the deep heart of the country the stars appear in their most glorious vista, the air is fragranced with the fresh scent of Eucalypt, old abandoned tractors remind one of the ‘good old days’ and cause us to appreciate the times from whence we’ve come, sunlight streams through gum trees rendering a glorious awakening of life, silence prevails upon the earth and fosters a deep richness of thought that is oft lost in our fast and moving pace, live is simpler here…

A few days of breathing in the country air offered a porthole in time to pause and reflect on just how much I do love this life.