Dancing in the rain!

Yes, we have rain, glorious rain! How amazing the power of prayer is & more amazing the One who opened His storehouse to send it to us!

The following was written a few days before this refreshing rainfall arrived.

Where have all the wildflowers gone…

A song came to mind today for some reason along with its melody from the 60’s. I first heard it when it was popular, playing over the radio sung by The Seekers, it has to do with flowers & time.

It reminds me of a time when life seemed so much more carefree & full of possibilities. I was young, somewhat naive & quite the optimist. While I’d like to think life is still full of possibilities & optimism reigns.

I’m no longer naive, life events have a way of chasing naitivity away, replacing it with a wiser life experience.

As I look out on my extremely dry & parched garden with our trees dropping their leaves in mid Summer, plants dying & lawn replaced with bare earth as the drought here in Australia persists. And with the official water restrictions tightening… gardens suffer.

I can hear that melody playing in a loop through my mind…Where have all the wildflowers gone…time is passing…(my words).

Before we continue, let’s grab our cuppa & get comfy. My tea blend today is called “Women’s Business” it’s an Australian native bush tea picked & blended by our indigenous women.

It was a gift from my daughter & son in law bought on their road trip in the Australian outback.  It’s a delicious blend of Australian native raspberry & black tea.

Last year I was invited to attend an Aboriginal Art & Women’s Business afternoon where our region’s indigenous women elders with their daughters shared their stories through their language of art & Christian faith.

It was indeed a most enjoyable afternoon…as you can see I even had the opportunity to express my story through the symbols for the land under their tutelage. Their symbols are all aerial views of the landscape.

The dots, lines & squiggles all symbolize my journey to this point. The green & red dots are the trees & our red wildflowers called Waratahs, the lines are the pathways & the blue squiggles are the ocean with white dots for the waves.

As you can see there are four pathways (the four Seasons of my life) leading to a central meeting place with 8 seating around the camp (white horseshoe shapes are the impression we make when we sit in the sand around a campfire). Those 8 shapes are my hubby & I with our combined family of 6 daughters.

We all meet at the waterfront on Christmas Eve most years as shared in Sunsets on 2019...it’s our meeting place & this is what this painting represents.

Now you may be wondering what a folk tune from the 60s, Aboriginal Art & drought have in common.

Let me bring it together…

As the Fire crisis here in Australia has unfolded with many lives lost, homes, towns, wild life & bush burnt. I have watched the Climate Debate being bantered around.

Let’s look at the historical facts shall we…Australia’s history is one of drought & plenty. Well known to our indigenous people who have been custodians of the land since they arrived, thousands of years ago.

Their custom of land management was to do hazard reduction of the land in the form of cold burnings each year (which doesn’t hurt wildlife) in the right season of cool temperatures to prevent fires in the Summer getting out of hand.

However since European settlement this practice has been replaced by practices not conducive to our Australian environment.

Adding to the mix our Eucalyptus native gums with their volatile oils & the drought, we have the catastrophic conditions for fire storms that we have recently experienced.

Australia’s written & indigenous verbal histories have documented major droughts & severe temperatures causing fires back hundreds of years.

Examples can be seen in 1851 (170 years ago) the fire storms were so extensive that it was called Black Thursday & in 1898 we had Red Tuesday.

In the 1938 we also had Black Friday, in 1955 Black Sunday & 1983 Ash Wednesday to just name a few!

These catastrophic fire seasons were all in times of severe drought & extreme high Summer temperatures.

So to claim that the Fires in 2019/20 are caused by the current Climate change is totally incorrect! Australia has had droughts, extreme temperatures & fires throughout its history.

This fire season was catastrophic because of the number of fires that were burning at one time stretching our resources far too thin.

The good news is that indigenous traditional land management is being reintroduced with Aboriginal leaders imparting their wisdom for greater land management.

I am reminded of the following definition;

Truth is that which agrees with the final reality. 

&

“Therefore, lay aside falsehood, speak the truth, each one of you with his neighbor for we are all in this together. “

Ephesians 4:25

Thank you to all who have prayed for rain, you are such a blessing. I’m praising God for His answer & that more rain is on its way to completely douse all the fires & fill the dams!

Until next time,

Jennifer

 

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