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.

-the beginning-

I'm in Clearwater now. Smiling away. And I'm looking for a job, a really interesting one. I wonder if people would hire you to go on adventures with them...to help them create the special moments when you want to laugh and cry at the same time from the joy. If you know of anyone, why please let them know about me. Thanks. --Jerrye Albert