A Trip Down the Garden Path

What a worrying last few days it's been for North Queenslanders. While nowhere near as frightful as your experiences, I certainly spent the last few days very concerned about all my family and friends back home. We've never seen a cyclone so severe and destructive. I can't even imagine how harrowing that long night was. Thankfully, it seems, you've all come out of it safely, and I guess it's now time to rebuild homes, yards, cities and lives.  as you all know, I am *ahem* unemployed at the moment, so I've had a lot of time to think, and fret, about all the happenings back home. Here's just some thoughts...

I've seen some aerial pictures of Tully and Mission Beach on the internet; houses smashed like card board boxes with tiny dollhouse-like furniture scattered across the lawn. How sad for these people when the sun came up this morning to reveal all their things in ruins. But, things can be replaced, houses rebuilt and trees replanted. Life is what we really must be grateful for.

Experiences like this really make you think how insignificant we are in the scheme of things. Thinking in hindsight, it's easy to fall into that comfortable groove - we live in a blessed country with a good economy, and a usually strong government. We have the right to freedom of speech, to vote, drive a car, to buy our groceries from Coles or Woolies...we have the right to control  lots of things in life. Yet, we don't have any control over the might of Mother Nature. I found myself saying to Glen the other night 'Surely scientists have invented something to stop the cyclone, like some sort of powder you sprinkle over the top to dissolve it and make it go away?'. He chuckled, 'I don't think so Darl.'

In a world where technology is advancing so fast and cures are being found for terrible diseases, in a world where people fight for the good (and mostly win), where millions and millions of dollars are gathered and spent on amazing things and where people are so powerful and make huge decisions every day, you would think that's an indication how powerful we really are.  Yet in one foul swoop out of nowhere, something unknown and far more powerful can come along and render us so powerless....

I know it's so cliche, but it's just a reminder of how important it is to love yourself and those around you and to embrace each day as it comes, with the good and the bad. So, while I'm (still) jobless, I'm going to cook a nice dinner for the working boy. It's about time we had some veggies instead of salad. It's easy to slob around and watch TV, but it's nicer to make someone else's day and to look to builiding and enhancing all the great things we already have. Maybe we have less power than we think we do, but we can have more power over things than what we do now. 

Bye bye for now :)

P.S. Something may be on the job front, but only in the works at the moment. I will let you all know if it goes beyond that. 

P.P.S I got paid for the week of work I did last week! It was more than I thought it would be, which keeps me optimistic in the so-called sad economic times over here. It wasn't teaching work either, it was work as a teaching assistant (kind of like teacher aide combined with learning support teacher), which makes me even more financially optimistic for when teaching work comes along.

P.P.P.S. Photos of our new place (in all its emptiness) to be posted this weekend, I promise.

P.P.P.S. Ha, just wanted to put this one to see all those Ps in a row.