Summerfest

A taste of Australia - in 3 Haiku verses.

Australians are not - in general - a particularly religious people, though some of us are intensely so.

On the other hand this continent now known as “Australia” is home to what is arguably the world’s oldest continuous spiritual tradition - the indescribably rich, complex and varied knowledge and belief systems of the Aboriginal First Nation peoples who have inhabited this land since….

Well, they say since forever.

And Science tells us that it has been at least 65,000 years - which is close enough to forever in any kind of human terms that matter. (Just try imagining 65,000 years of birth and life and death and all the stories and knowledge that accumulates over such a colossal span of time).

So what holds us together now - 237 years after a violent invasion which eventually made my First Nation friends a minority in their own land?

There are many answers - mostly complex - but one of them is simple. Although this is a vast continent an astonishing 87% of us live within just 50km (30 miles) of the ocean.

Having lived myself many years in our central deserts I now live again near the ocean. I have just spent the day by the sea and I am reminded of how it removes what could otherwise be barriers between us.

It is late Spring. The sun is hot. The sea is calling.

Take off your clothes and enter the ocean….

Summer gatherers;

sunstruck, ocean assembled

in the water zone.

Each surging breaking

wave enunciates our name,

now - calling us home.

Collaborated,

salt licked and liberated,

no longer alone.