An Australian Adventure
Recently I went to the Australian bush country and using a metal detector and pick axe, mined for gold. I had a BLAST of a time. No kidding. I highly recommend it. Nothing like standing in an icy creek with south pole winds blowing on you, wielding a pick axe, and then squatting down to cup the soil out, sprinkle it over the detector, and then toss it aside. I loved every moment of it. Read what I wrote, below, if that's your choice. --Jerrye
Favorite Australian phrase: "ning nong," which means: absolute idiot. I just love their language. It's another kind of English altogether.
An Australian Adventure
This sure beats sitting at a desk job. At my age, and a woman to boot, I am having an adventure. Me! This is a dream I never dared to dream. And it's fun. Really fun!
I was beset with thoughts of conserving my meager savings "in case something went wrong." Growing older is no fun if you are being cautious, worried, conservative.
I recalled how wide open my eyes were to discovery when I was younger, how I was captivated by the glistening threads of an intricate spider web on a bush; how a silent family of deer and I stared at each other until one of us had a thought, whereupon the deer leaped away, how I pretended to be an Indian softly treading the parchment autumn leaves on a hiking trail, tracking I know not what. It didn't matter.
Indeed, growing old is a state of mind, no more. I knew I had to create an adventure. So I did.
Throwing all dust like motes of caution into yesterday, I gave my car to a friend for a dollar with the agreement I could buy it back for a dollar, gave away most of my belongings, and went to the Australian bush country. With the help of a friend I found my way into the central goldfields shire, in search of the elusive gold nugget.
For a brief flickering moment I wonder why I do this. What drives me onward? Why do I dance in the freezing cold rain of an Australian winter? Is it the golden gossamer illusion I imagine driving me onward? Is it the thought of great riches awaiting me, material wealth burdening me to its care with clutter, complexity and chains? Why do I love this so? I hear the kookaburra bird high in a gum tree, laughing with me.
It is the excitement, the joy of the act, the moment. I am smiling as I swing the pick axe, digging a hole in the reddish soil sprinkled with quartz. Although I am freezing from the cold arctic wind wending its way northward from the south pole I feel an excitement bubbling thru my very beingness as I squat on the ground, and sift the reddish soil with my frozen bare hands, wave it over a metal detector and then toss it aside.
I feel very alive. I am living in this moment. Soon I will return to the states with or without gold. The treasure I take with me is already mine. It is a new knowledge of the joy of creating the moment. Where will I go when I arrive stateside? I do not yet know. It does not matter. I will know it when I get there. What does matter is that I know that I can create it myself and all will be right. It is all in your state of mind.
Labels: Adventures
posted by Jerrye Albert at 10:53 AM
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