Darwin Journal Musings

Turning Up & Being Present

I had dropped into this small coffee van a few times over the week. It was the space I used to do journalling while enjoying a great coffee. They are lovely crew and I hear their Salted Caramel Latte is delicious. Percolated on Bishop St in Woolner NT.

---

I was in Darwin last week. It is about 2000 flying miles from my home in Melbourne. A four-hour trip from one dot on the edge of this vast land to another. It is at the top end of Australia - as we tend to say. It’s lush from tropical rain and storms that seem to race across the sky with rattling ferocity, leaving the city doused and steaming. The weather was somewhere between the buildup to and the start of wet season. I arrived a week after Cyclone Fina had dropped torrents of rain and felled trees across the city and surrounds, without making landfall. Apart from the debris left on roadsides it felt like yesterday’s news. Conversations had already moved on, as had life.

Darwin is remarkable city with a thriving and diverse community. Moving beyond Darwin you will find unique country; it can be breathtakingly beautiful and unrelentingly harsh. You would think I would have been eager to get out of the city to sites such as Kakadu, Lichfield, or even the Katherine Gorge. But not this time. My visit was about family, planned around one granddaughters end of primary school graduation activities. So instead of snapping pics of Jabiru and Saltwater Crocs I went to swimming carnivals and soccer matches, and prepared special family dinners. I sweltered through the end of year ceremonies and watched rumbling clouds roll in. I fell asleep under the heavy skies, lulled by distant thunder and its promise of rain.

You see it’s the little things I have enjoyed most. Making caramel slice with the girls which we filled into jars to give to their teachers. Crafting a keepsake worthy Christmas wreath to hang on the front door and planning secret Santa options. We talked about the holidays and walked the dog along the beach. We found tiny hermit crabs while I wondered out loud about lurking salties and stingers at the water’s edge. They laughed off my concerns, but not so loudly as to sound smug. We ventured out for coffees and ate at the markets. We shopped, and I journalled. I took photos of Magpie Geese and ocean washed pebbles. It was a week of doing and being together, just picking up where we had left off since their last visit to Melbourne.

Now back home I’m busy with cooking, baking and preparing for our Melbourne family festivities but if I still myself for a moment I can still hear the girls chatter, and I miss their daily routines. But that’s how life goes. My Darwin family have always enjoyed an adventurous life. They’ve travelled and lived across continents, and we’ve learned to slip in and out of each other’s spaces with ease. It was bittersweet to say goodbye; I would love to have them all in one place but that’s not our reality.

I don’t sweat the big things anymore, because I know it’s the little things that matter most.

Wishing you all a very safe and peaceful festive season.