Life's Longing For Itself

It amazes me that we settle down here so quickly. Six weeks have passed and it feels like months. I know that we will return home and settle back there equally as quickly. It's wonderful to have two places where we feel comfortable. The major difference here, is being so far away from family and missing them very much. Thank goodness for technology!

The other thing I miss is my house ---- although we love caravanning, the very size of the house seems to add solidity to my life. Just before we left home, my son made a joke about collecting the insurance on the house. When I thought about it, I realised how much the house has grown on me. Despite its rather derelict condition, it has a good feel about it. It's so large that you need to take a picnic lunch to go to the toilet. During winter, we shut up one half of the house and live in the other half, which conserves firewood. In summer, I will be happy to open it all up again and spend time in each room. At present, these rooms consist of: a lounge room, with music equipment, and walls of photos covering the peeling paint ; a room with exercise equipment, sewing machine and craft activities for the kids; the spare room, which has one double, two singles and easy enough room for more beds; and the last room is in the late stages of transforming from a junk room to a "museum"! I love having my collections of old books, comics, patterns and personal memorabilia where I can rummage through it. This last can't be done in a caravan!

Due to a couple of downpours of rain, over 2" in total, the land has become green again. The bulbs have come up and even though they are late and quite stunted, they have bloomed. Gibran calls that "Life's longing for itself", (according to my loose interpretation.) I've always admired that about plants --- it seems such an "honest", basic thing to do. We human beings often have to huddle down in the deep and conserve our strength, ready for the big battle to raise our heads. So what, if we're a little stunted and battered when we emerge--- we still show our true beauty.
A collage of the flowers that have bloomed.

Can anyone identify this very low growing shrub, with white flowers, shiny leaves and red seed pods???

After sending Peace cards and receiving answers, I was very disappointed to find that no one could tell of celebrations for International Peace Day on September 21st, anywhere in the world. Given the number of conflicts throughout the world and the number of countries and personnel involved, wouldn't you think that there would be celebrations happening somewhere??? My friend Rosemary, from the USA, wrote, "Only one little article appeared in our paper about today's soldiers were to hold up on firing to observe the day of peace."

I'm going to write to the United Nations and ask them why they think this day is a "global holiday". In my opinion, this should be the biggest day of the year, religious or non-religious. Peace involves love and love is a basic concept of any religious or human belief. Anyone care to join me in trying to promote International Peace Day for next year?????