I like it when it’s dark, the world is so much bigger than it is when it’s day

When it’s dark there aren’t so many boundaries

Boundaries, the biggest one being sight, are put out of the way

Perhaps that’s why so often people are afraid of the dark – when their eyes are unable to work, all the other senses are awakened

That’s when you can hear and feel – sense your surroundings

Your senses see far more than your eyes can

I like it when it’s dark. It’s then that I can be with you…

Just when you think that there’s nothing you can do to help at all, that’s when you learn that every event needs a witness. Some times life is like a theatre production, and needs an audience to participate in the act of watching and enjoying for the production to have any meaning at all. People’s lives are like that; my life is like that. I guess it’s normal.

There are the people who seem to need to attract the eyes of others. Like a shooting star, existing for one reason; it seems as if it aimlessly roams the universe eventually finding itself in the right place at the right time for one fleeting moment as it lights up the dark sky and is then gone forever. Never a great shout out into the endless unknown - ”this is it! One star’s moment to out shine all others…”

No flyers in mailboxes to alert potential observers, no posters in shop front windows or notice boards. Sometimes there may be mention of a comet or a meteor shower but rarely is there a heads up call for the countless thousands or even millions of shooting stars that display their splendour every night and day. Their brilliance goes unnoticed all the time every where and if the event is missed, it can never be seen again.

We are like those countless bits of debris in the universe. That’s our life in the great scheme of things; in the seemingly endless loops of time past, present and future. Sometimes the realizing of truth can hold us down and disguise us with grief and pain; the things that dull us in the night sky and we feel like those broken bits of debris in the great unknown out there some where.

When you feel like that, and there are times that you do. Walk up to someone and say hi, smile as you LISTEN to them. You may have been the only one that has loved them in this way for the longest time. It’s at your loneliest moments that you can realize how others actually feel. It’s then when you’re at your lowest, you can touch someone else’s life and mean it; touching their broken hearts with compassion cause you know how they feel, you know how it is.

Sometimes that’s when we get to sit back and participate in the production by observing and enjoying each other. We will probably part company sooner or later and our acquaintance may be very short and fleeting or life long, but I for one will always remember the time I found a stream, and after diving in, never felt quite so lonely ever again…

The waves were tossing us about like the green tossed pieces of salad I had for lunch just before we left the port. Standing up at the front of the boat, the cool breeze and spray of the salt water, reminded me of a time long ago in a place far away. I closed my eyes and in the dark, I remembered, I longed for and missed so much of what was life back then….

Family, friends, the culture of the only home I’d ever known were fading fast on the horizon as we launched out to our new tomorrow; all of yesterday with its beauty and its terror, every moment of life being erased before my eyes, and I wept.

The spray of the ocean mingled with tears that flowed freely and unhindered from my eyes as every fear and uncertainty shouted out relentlessly in my mind and my heart beat hard in my chest. Every single “what if” rang loudly like alarm bells warning of danger, looming unseen, threatening in the great unknown.

But we’re here, and we live. Our hands have helped to build a nation and our loved ones have died in protecting our future. We have had a new beginning, and continue to live free in a land of plenty. We have a future generation that will move us forward into the never ending unknown. We lose much, we yet have much; it is as it has always been. Yes… we have hope…

There's always Hope...

I was sitting in the middle. I always sat in the middle of the back seat. I don’t know why? My older sister and younger brother always fight for the windows but here in the middle I could see more than either one of them. Dad and mum were talking about the neighbour and his dog or something as the road ahead curved and rolled on and on.

Lillian was sitting on the left hand window side, looking at something in her bag. She was missing the whole left side of the world that was passing us by. The beach caravan park with all the caravans and annexes, big bus thingies and tents of many different colours, all lined up in rows. Towels hanging on the ropes, all the different kinds of out door tables and chairs, kids playing footy and other games on the grassy places in between the caravan and tent sites. There were the big trees that filtered the hot summer sun so there was an added strode light effect to the real life movie that was being played on the huge screen all around us.

Bobby sat on the right side window but was busy watching his ant farm. Through his window there was a mountain, big and dark against the high summer sky. Shadows formed features on the mountain face, and with the added colour of the native bush, my mind went into fairy tale mode; oh the magical tales that were told to me by my imagination. I could see the characters in my minds eye and knew their joys and heart breaks personally. There was Friss the water nymph who was allergic to the damp and Connor the gecko who lost his tail and didn’t know where to find it. Let me see now…  Ohh yes! Bokabon the son of the king of dragonflies who woke up one morning and couldn’t fly! Poor Bokky, it all worked itself out in the end though. I was so relieved when we got to the end of HIS amazing little tale.

With the constant running of the motor and the rocking of the car we would eventually drift off into the land where all my friends came to life. That’s were they became real and each of us learned to help the other live and love…