February 15, 2011
We’re in the little beach town of Hervey Bay at a lovely, quiet hostel across the street from the beach. Kids are out exploring and I am enjoying a much needed moment to myself with my book (“The Secret the Power”), cup of java and computer. Luckily we don’t have internet right now as that would steal my time from me for sure! I am reading about Gratitude and how the more you express it, the more you feel it and how it doubles everything in your life to be grateful for. I love the reminder. Years ago, when Julian was a baby, I read that each morning you should start the day with a mental list of 10 things to be grateful for, and to really feel it. I have practiced that since and I believe it is one of the practices that helped me fall in love with life.
It appeared, yesterday, that we hit a block and had made a wrong choice. Thank you Julian and Nick, for stepping up and reminding me that it was all ok and we were still going to have a good time! We had the idea that we wanted to visit a place called “Frasier Island”, as we have read so much about how beautiful it was and that you could go sand boarding there. We left the farm yesterday around noon to head in the direction of the island, six hour drive, got here and realized it would cost $740 for the group to go for the day! On the internet we had checked out taking the car, as it has a “car ferry price” listed, but it didn’t exactly say that your car had to be 4 wheel drive and that you had to rent it from them at $170 for the day. Anyway, we weighed out every possible option and came to the conclusion that we could live without seeing Frasier Island. It was dark by the time we drove to this little town and found a hostel. Turns out to be a great little town! The hostel has kayaks too, for $5 for the entire day! We’ll be here for another night. I got up this morning and Nick had already been up and done everyone’s laundry! He even hung it on the clothes line all nice and straight! Nick is a great team player.
We’ll sit with the map later and see what other sort of “changes” we may need to make. We are definitely learning “all the time” and most of all learning to “go with the flow”!
It was hard to leave the farm. In such a short time, we became so close to the family. I love getting to that level quickly with someone and knowing they have touched my life, and vice versa. The night before we left there was a party on the “ant hill”; which is the highest point on the property with a great view of the meadow below and the sunset. There were about ten other farming families with adjoining farms. It was a potluck. Everyone also brought beef sausages to grill. They all loved the Florida travelers and were curious about our experiences. I met another traveler who was working on one of the farms. He was interesting. He was Dutch, about 25 years old, and has been traveling for two years. He said he never liked school and after a few years at University (Uni they call it here), he woke up one day and admitted that he “still didn’t like it”, dropped out, got a visa and left. He has read all the inspirational books I’ve read and his intention in life is to live everyday in the present moment. He says he wants to “live his life” not just “do” something as a means to an end. Life happens all the time, right, and every moment is to be treasured.