Been a Big Year…

It’s been a big year and a half or so.  Here’s a small slice of it for those who may be interested.  In 2011 I planned to visit family and friends in North America and say some goodbyes to loved ones who had passed away in recent years.  I planned to go for a few months before returning to my life in Northern Australia.

However, life took one of those somewhat surprising and painful twists that suddenly forced me to realize I’d somehow strayed far off the path I believed I was on.  I wondered how I’d gotten there.  I wanted to figure it out and ensure I’d never find myself there again. I decided that there was no real hurry to return to my life in Northern Australia I had shared with my, by then, ex-partner.  I departed Australia in July 2011, admittedly broken hearted, somewhat shattered and lost.

I started my North American tour in Victoria on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada where my Mother lives.  It’s a truly beautiful place.  I caught up with friends there.  I took the Black Ball Ferry ‘Coho’ to Port Angeles, Washington to visit a very dear friend and her husband before returning to Victoria.  My Mother and I then traveled together by train from Vancouver to Ontario through the Canadian Rockies.  It was train trip I’ve always wanted to make and it really was beautiful. 

From my Sister’s house in London, Ontario my Sister, Mother, Nephew and I drove east across Canada.  We arrived on the south shore of Nova Scotia near the end of July.  We spent a couple weeks together there at our family place, Sheep Island.

A-frame on Sheep Island

I stayed on the island and spent time with friends there until November 2011.  Before departing Nova Scotia my final foible was to fall from a wharf and break my ribs.  There was some rotten wood, a low tide and a sudden stop on the gunnel of my boat involved.

Thankfully my dearest Bubba and longtime friend Gordon Miller, seen here…

..was there at the scene to fish me out of the water and care for me afterward.  I didn’t go to the hospital at first, but did eventually and the x-ray confirmed the breakage.  I found what people had told me about broken ribs to be true.  It’s very painful and heals slowly.

About a week later I traveled by air via wheelchair down to Bradenton, Florida where my Father and Stepmother live.  I enjoyed the warm temperatures and comforts of their lovely home while healing my ribs.  We celebrated Christmas together there.

It was a very special treat being with family and friends over the holidays.  My Sister came down from Ontario to visit and long time best friends from Nova Scotia and Michigan came too!  We celebrated my 40^th Birthday and it was a truly amazing sea-themed Birthday party. One I will never forget.

I was incredibly touched by the effort everyone made to be there.  Florida can be an enticing destination during the N American winter.  The food was incredible and local friends and family went all out with decorations and preparations.

A friend who lives in Shanghai, China was home visiting her folks in Bradenton and was there for the party too.  A few days later we celebrated a quiet New Years’ on the beach at Anna Maria Island.

While staying in Bradenton and healing up I walked almost everyday in Robinson Reserve http://www.mymanatee.org/home/government/departments/natural-resources/resource-management/robinson-preserve It’s a beautiful place and a wonderful example of a locally driven initiative that benefits the environment and community.  Go Manatee County!

I pursued some medical advice for ongoing back problems and got a new MRI done.  Clear answers about how best to treat my back remained somewhat elusive, but I appreciated the advice and support I received from health professional and my folks.  I plan to follow up options when I arrive back in Australia.

In the New Year I decided to cash in some savings and take myself a ‘mid-term retirement’.  I wanted more time to travel and enjoy spending time with loved ones.  Reluctantly, I acknowledged that a motorcar, being the dominant form of American transport, would be the best overall mode of travel for my purposes.  It would be a mobile suitcase that could get me from place to place.  I bought myself a used car for $2000 USD and named her Pearl after my dear friend ‘Shirl the Pearl’ in Australia.  A very fine lady, like Shirl, is Pearl, an Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera ’93.

The hat was the first 40^th Birthday gift I received from my Sister.  She got it from a goodwill shop in Ontario and brought it down for the occasion.  It traveled across North America in Pearl’s rear window.  The apron was handmade and posted from my very talented friend Kyle Kain in South Australia.

Carlita Cactus, a gift from my Dad and Stepmother, rode shotgun on the trip.

In April I traveled north from Florida through the southern U.S.  Pearl and I took our time and enjoyed the charms and absurdities of the south.  There is beautiful country to behold and experience there.  The wildlife is healthy and plentiful and the Spanish moss has a life of it’s own.  I caught sight of his Cottonmouth snake off the side of a trail I walked at the Savanna Wildlife Refuge in Georgia. http://www.fws.gov/savannah/

I arrived at Option Institute http://www.option.org/index.php in Sheffield, Massachusetts at the end of April.  I had previously arranged to do eight weeks voluntary work there.  I chose to spend time there firstly because it’s a place my Grandmother Peggy had spent time in the early and mid-1980s when she was still alive.

She spoke to me about it back then and told me she wanted me to go there.  Secondly, I was interested in the work they do with treatment of Autism. http://www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/ My Nephew is awesome and on the Autism Spectrum.  Because of him, it’s something that I’ve tried to learn more about.

I had a wonderful eight weeks at Option.  Most of all, I enjoyed the other volunteers I met.  We lived in the same house, worked and attended classes together.  We became a multi-cultural, multi-lingual family of sorts.

Getting to know the Staff was also a highlight.  Some of them knew and remembered my Grandmother.  The location in the very southwest corner of Massachusetts was spectacular.  Option Institute sits on an incredible property.  Rolling hills and forest surround a river valley that lies at the foot of the Appalachian Trail.

Hard at work on the property….

Nearby at Bash Bish Falls

During my time volunteering I had the opportunity to explore the surrounding area.  I visited old high school friends and their families living close by across the border in New York State.  It was a lot of fun visiting with them after so many years and seeing their corner of the world.

After finishing my volunteer term at Option and learning more about the Autism Treatment Centre of America I said a tearful goodbye to my volunteer family, including some wonderful Staff members.  From Massachusetts I traveled west to Rochester and then north to Ontario where I visited my Sister and Nephew for a few days before heading to Ann Arbor, Michigan.

I arrived Ann Arbor in time for an all school reunion of Community High School.  Like more than a few others and for many reasons I am extremely grateful I attended and graduated from this school.  Community is a public high school but was founded on alternative education principles.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_High_School_(Ann_Arbor,_Michigan)

I can only describe Community the way I see it.  I know there is probably another perspective of what Community High School was and is for each student who attended or attends now.  That’s part of what we learned there.  The value of diversity, acceptance, tolerance and appreciation of the arts are just a few other things.  The size and location of the school near downtown Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan made a difference to.  My graduating class consisted of eighty students.

The all school reunion in June 2012 was the first I’d ever attended.  It was also the fortieth anniversary of Community High School.  It was a real buzz!  It was great to be there if mildly overwhelming at times.  I can’t remember the last time I saw so many people I wanted to embrace in such a short time span.  There was a lot of love there.  We missed those who are no longer with us but it was a thrill to find where life had taken us all and realize that we are still a community.

Josh Meisler and his family hosted a pre-reunion BBQ the night before.  It was a great warm up for the next day at Delhi Park.  I missed the jazz show later the night of the reunion at a local venue (Joe!) but it sounded pretty great.

The following day was the Comstock reunion concert at Wheeler Park.  Comstock was (is?) an annual event where Community High School students and their bands played on a stage set up behind the school on the lawn at our very own little version of Woodstock.  The reunion concert seriously rocked out!  It was so much fun to hear the bands play again.  All up, I can’t imagine a better high school reunion.  The pink hat made an appearance at the Comstock reunion concert too. https://picasaweb.google.com/117236907111938783711/HatTrick2012?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIv9lpfI9KT-QQ&feat=directlink

My time in Ann Arbor went by quickly the way it does when you’re catching up with old friends and family and enjoying the summer weather.  I headed back through Ontario on my way east to Nova Scotia mid July.  My Mother, Sister and Nephew would again be arriving for a visit and I didn’t have much time to get the Sheep Island ready for their arrival.

Good friends in Cherry Hill got the boat in the water for me and Uncle Stan helped me open up the house on the island.  In addition Ma had arranged to stay in a ‘cottage’ on shore while everyone was there.  The cottage is in the back half of the old village store.  It has a wharf to tie up the boat and luxuries like power and running water.  Staying on the island is more like camping.  Those who’ve visited Sheep Island will know this.

My Ma, Sister, Nephew and I shared one of those lovely sunny summer family holidays together that came to an end all too soon.  The three of them headed home early August and I stayed on the island.

The mosquitoes were swarming in thick squadrons this past summer in Nova Scotia.  They were unbelievable in numbers and totally relentless until the first frost in the autumn.  Even then they came back strong if there was a couple warm days and some rain.  Mean!!!

I soaked up my time on the island and completed a few small projects around the place over the next few months.  I love being there in a way that is unique to anywhere else in the world.  I also got to spend time with some of my dearest and oldest friends there. My Father and Stepmother came to Halifax for a visit in August.  Friends visited from Michigan too.  They were almost carried away by mosquitoes but were good sports about it.

Autumn is perhaps the most beautiful season in Nova Scotia.  It’s absolutely stunning.  Golden days, cool clear nights and the incredible riotous colours of the leaves as they change before falling from the trees.

When the Autumn winds blow the last leaves from the trees and the days grow shorter it is time for me to move on.  I haven’t stayed through a North American winter season for many years now.  I fear I have become very susceptible to the cold living in tropic climates for so long now.  I enjoy a cozy fireside and seeing snowfall, but I long for the outdoors and the sunshine.  So, I said a teary farewell to Nova Scotia once again and began my journey back to my other home, Australia.

I went as far as London, Ontario for a final few weeks with my Sister and Nephew before leaving the continent.  This was very precious time indeed for me and I was grateful to have it, but the November cold was biting at me already.

I headed westward to Vancouver on November 19^th, then onto Hononlulu, Hawai’i on the 20^th and then onto Guam and my final destination Cairns, Australia.  I arrived early in the morning on Friday November 23^rd.

My dearest of friends and adopted Australian family met me when I arrived at long last.  They brought me back home to their beautiful spread on the Atherton Tablelands where the garden is lush and birdsong raucous.  Where treasured relics of the life I left a year ago were waiting for me.  I am glad to be back, to embrace dear friends and to move toward my next Australian chapter.

Luckily, I fell into a Dr. appointment in my first few days back.  I’ve since got a referral to the specialist clinic in Melbourne to see about my back and what treatments may be available.  I’ve got a Stepsister and friends in Melbourne.  I look forward to seeing them and thank them all in advance for their welcoming hospitality and kindness.

The end of 2012 is now rapidly approaching.  I honestly feel more content, blessed and certain of life than I can ever remember.  I am extremely grateful for the people in my life that I love and who love me.  I feel this strongly and words cannot properly express it.  I see wonder in this world still and balance my hope against my cynicism on a day-to-day basis.  Thanks for taking the time to read me and best wishes for you and our world in 2013.

Mah!