The Forbes St Blessing (this time with picture!)

Well, as you all now know, Keith and I are in process of selling our green and purple cottage on Forbes St, Hornsby  to the French’s.  We are so excited that it will be staying in our Hornsby community. We have always had a very special feeling for that house and hold some precious memories of daily life lived there and special occasions celebrated there. It is so unbelievably wonderful that we will have some ongoing connection with it. For me, I have really had a sense of God giving more than I could ever have asked or imagined when the French’s said they were interested in buying it.  My prayer is that that house will continue to be a place where community is valued, where all kinds of different people are welcomed, where stories and meals are shared ( not to mention the odd glass of wine), where trees are celebrated, where the importance of having a cup of tea on the verandah is never forgotten, and where the colour purple is always noticed (so as not to piss God off). 

Warmer weather and vegies

Well, it’ a warm night in Alice. First night for ages I haven’t had to use the slow cumbustion fire. Can’t say I’m hapy about it. I like winter and don’t want spring to come too fast. Nevertheless, when I was watering the vegie garden and all our newly planted trees, it was good to not have to be rugged up against a chill night.  I could just wander around in jeans and a T shirt. I love coming home here and wandering around the property, watching the sun set and checking on what’s growing. I have a lot of broccili at the moment and the cauliflower is really coming along too. I love picking stuff from the garden and eating it not long later. Feels so good. We’ve been here a year now and this place is really getting into my bones.

A Bit of Hell Theology

I figure I should blog because it’s been so long. But what to say? Keith gets in first to talk about the really special things like smoking ceremonies in our hut. That was really wonderful. I can maybe tell you about the little Catholic church I go to here in Alice because Keith never goes so he can’t beat me to it. I like this little church because it is largely indigenous and there’s kids everywhere and Sisters of Charity nuns and they sing some songs in Arrerente and there’s ritual and I quite like a bit of ritual. I still haven’t told them I’m not Catholic.  Father Russ, the Fijian priest thee usually makes me laugh rather than annoy me, as so many sermons do these days. Any way, last Sunday we had a whole heap of visitors from so many different countries, some of whom struggled with English and were utterly baffled trying to read the Arrerente songs on the overhead.  They were young people on their pilgrimage back after World Youth Day. They were all really high from their experience in Sydney, which was great.  Any way, the gospel reading for the day last Sunday was the bit where Jesus talks about hell and all the people there gnashing their teeth.  Russ picked this reading for his sermon and I was sititng there worrying he was about to really piss me off with a bit of hell theology. Instead he told the story about how the last time that was the gospel reading for the day the bishop was down and he had launched into a sermon warning about hell and the gnashing of teeth, when old Rosie up the back called out saying “But Bishop, I haven’t got any teeth” to which the Bishop, without missing a beat, replied, “Teeth will be provided.” I’m happy to know that teeth will be provided in hell. Good ol’ Father Russ! He even managed to make me laugh in a sermon on hell.

smoke and septic

sunday was a complex day filled with simplicity.

there was the simple joys of locating john and mallees septic tank because they had septic fluid running all over the backyard, clogged toilets and clogged drains. no real clue of where the septic lay under the ground so we got out the tractor to do a bit of reconnaisance work. glens wife diane, a patient woman, watched the fever pitch activities. she was also looking carefully at this tacky little map i’d located of the house extensions. she called up to me on the tractor have you got a tape? i instructed her to the appropriate place she’d find it from my princely tractor seat. she came back with dust from the tractor filling the air. she measured a couple of things. she then got my attention again and suggested that just maybe the septic tank might be located about 12.5 metres from where i was digging. i felt a bit silly but given that finding the septic was a higher priority than me driving the tractor I dismounted, got a shovel and within minutes we’d hit the septic. a fine band we are indeed. i’ve learnt alot about septics in the last week and the system is now nearly working which is particuarly pleasing. maybe another week and it will fully work.

this complex day full of simplicity was also the allotted day for the hut smoking. after our sterling but unscheduled work on the septic it did set me back a bit in getting the hut ready. but this was the day. john was signed up a few friends David & Sue Woods, Margie herfernan Glen and Diane and Stephanie and her new man Greg. Greg is the head engineer for Alice Springs Town Council and he did note that the hut was a little suspect which isnt an ideal start to the hut opening. simplicity can be complex. he also said he has very poor recall.

the next simple complexity was that just as our guests were arriving we noted that john and mallee had disappeared. i said teh show goes on. stella much more persistent than I rang up mallee who said they’d gone into town to have a shower because of the septic. they assured us they’d be back in a jiff, well, half and hour. we had a cuppa on our verandah with the guests and true to their word they came back.

it actually got quite moving then as we all walked up to the hut John emerged from his shyness and as Aboriginal elder he ushered us through a lovely smoking ceremony that would cleanse the hut and heal those who would come here. it was wonderful seeing this man bring his wisdom and love of country and traditional cultural practice to us. he was also wonderfully comfortable in this role. Gentle but also clear and strong.

Stella had prepared a few prayers, we talked about the genesis of the hut and its building and then we finished with ‘Bless this Hut’. Which for most of the people reading this will know it is a variation on John Colemans song which we sang and Mil and Martins wedding.

we finished with a BBQ back at the house which was nice because i like functions where there are Aboriginal people and non Aboriginal people sharing simple things together. that BBQ has its own story but if i tell that this will never get finished. suffice to say the Aboriginal politics around kangaroo tail makes Kevin Rudd look like a beginner.

Yes it was a complex day full of simplicity.

john starting the smoking ceremony

alice springs show

well friday was the alice springs show day and we got an extra day off as one should if its is such an auspcious occasion. we did skip off to teh show for a bit which was really quite good for a little bitsy town bit it was just better to have a day off. Stella and i went for a ride along the bike path which is always fine and dandy. It seems to be a good way to touch the desert at a reasonably efficient speed.

Sundaywas a sort of subdued day so i went and made a porch for the hut. Its a shame (Vernon) John wasnt there for the rock laying. That would have been nice. Its now close to finished and we are looking to (Arrente) John to give it a ceremonial smoking. So smoking it will be in the near future. That is an aboriginal custom to ward off bad spirits. I remember what I said when I was on the roof hitting in a nail and decided to hit my thumb instead. I think it is that sort of thing we are trying to cleanse the hut from.

i have enjoyed working on the hut because its such a nice contrast to the vagueness of work. Its a nice place to spend a few hours. i like it there. i have got to know our place much better because I often choose different ways to walk back to the house. Theres the fence track, the tank hill track, the bore track, the middle hill track, the whitegum track and the perimeter track. Each one is very nice in its own way. Alice Springs is teaching me to enjoy familarity. Sydney teaches you to enjoy difference. They are both good in there own ways.

It’s raining!

I know you coastal people aren’t too excited by rain but for us people in the centre it’s pretty special. It hasn’t rained for 6 months. We are having a wet cold day of non stop rain.  David, who is here from Melbourne, thinks the West Macdonnells look like the Blue Mts because they are half covered in misty clouds.  I’m not sure I’m quite with him there but the atmosphere here is certainly different to how it usually is.  I’m sure it is raining because it is a long weekend and we had made plans to go camping with our neighbours out to their traditional land… or it might be because I finally got around to washing the cars last weekend.  Any way, the rain has driven me inside so I am blogging. Keith and Glen are undeterred and are up at the hut installing the old windows we merrily brought up from Sydney care of Qantas. You know the woman at the airport didn’t even weigh them. She asked Keith how much they weighed and he said a number under our luggage limit and then she stuck stickers on them and told us to take them to Special Baggage. So we brought up 7 old windows Keith took out of some house before it was demolished. They will contribute to the special recycled nature of the hut.

life just keeps going except for the little matter of death

There are so many things I want to put down on the blog but it seems that life has just flown by. I remember when Bob Dylan wrote ‘Hard Rains a Gonna Fall’ he said he’d written this one song with so many things in it because he really wanted to write a separate song about every line in it but thought he’d never get it done. he just put it all in the one song. I feel a bit the same. Since i was talking about the hut and tractor I’ve had the road trip visit which involved family/friends ging, walking, riding, campfiring, and maybe best of all just hanging. That was one special week. It was followed by the Kaldors, Trish Watts, Rod Pattenden, my brother Brian and his wife Sandra. We’ve planted trees, we’ve fixed lights, we’ve fixed gates, we’ve fixed pipes and of course we’ve brought the aviary (all 16 metres by 18 metres of it) back to life for our planned four chooks. I’ve applied for funding grants from NT Govt at work and had one approved. We’ve spent a lovely week in Sydney with Hannah and friends and family. Stella has said goodbye to her old friend Karen and I’ve said goodbye to my Auntie.

Life and death has been an underlying theme for some months now. I feel quite unsettled. I have loved every minute of the month yet have hardly had tim eto savour one thing and the next thing is upon me. And yet there have been these experiences of death and end. With David, Karen and Auntie they would probably rate as three pretty special deaths I guess, each for differnet reasons. Maybe a thing they had in common is that all three people had slowed enough to smell the flowers. Actually i think my Auntie had slowed even more than that but none of the three were rushing around living.

We often talk about needing to slow down and thats not what I feel. I actually quite like rushing around and doing things. But I also am hit by that tension of the being. Thats possibly why a week with Hannah is a pretty good thing to do. She lets you rush at one level but also models and encourages you constantly to be.

So no insights just feelings that it has been an amazing month which i wouldnt swap but its also nice to catch air.

Visitors, death and stars, and Eddie Mabo

I haven’t blogged for ages so I probably should put something out there into cyberspace for those few of you who might be interested. I really have been very busy. We’ve had a lot of wonderful people staying with us since the weather got more temperate here in Alice.  It has been great but when there are all these fantastic people here in real time I tend to neglect the blog. At the moment we have Trish Watts and Rod Pattendon in the house and Glen is still in the cabin and Keith’s brother and sister-in-law have parked their caravan here as well. Glen and Trish are running singing and Interplay  workshops here as well as mens and womens retreats. I did a womens retreat last weekend which gave me a chance to reflect on all that has been going on in my life. The big thing in my life lately has been that my very special friend who I have known and loved for 35 years died a couple of weeks ago. I had to fly to Brisbane and back in a space of a couple of days for the funeral with a brief stop over in Sydney to see Mil and eat Japanese food. It was a great funeral because so much of Karen was present. She had planned a lot of it as she has known she was dying for some time. Before she died she had told us that she was certain that no matter what happend she would remain connected to God and so also connected to us who are connected to God. I can believe that. Out here we have amazing stars and aboriginal people believe the stars are their ancestors looking down on them. I look at the stars and I think of Karen and David and Peter and Maggie, who all died in the last year. It’s been a big year of death for us. Being out here in the desert is a good place to ponder death as everywhere you look life and death are all around. Dead trees and live new leaves all side by side, both part of the pattern of it all. And the amazing big sky full of stars. Last night after work I met Rod and Keith for dinner on Todd Mall and afterwards they went to Trish’s singing workshop. My singing makes a cockatoo sound melodic so I gave it a miss. I walked out of the restaurant onto the Mall and noticed that there were films being shown on Story Wall, a public wall which is the side of a building in front of the Uniting Church where they screen free films. The films last night were positive stories abot men because some poeple have felt there have been too many negative perceptions of men here lately with all the sexual abuse stuff. Any way, they were starting to screen a doco on the life of Eddie Mabo so I thought I would watch because I knew nothing of the man other than his role in overturning the crazy law of Terra Nullius in this country. I sat on a chair on the lawn to watch with a handful of others. Shortly an aboriginal woman asked if she could sit with me and of course I said OK and partly expected her to ask me for money. In the centre of Alice at night you get asked a lot for money by aboriginal people. She didn’t ask me for anything and sat there drinking from a hidden beer can and watching the movie. I guess she figured she was less likely to get harrassed by  police for drinking sitting next to a white woman on the church lawns. The movie was finishing and it was a sad end. Eddie Mabo died of cancer only 5 months before the famous high court decision overturned Terra Nullius. And then some rotten bastards desecrated his grave. I was feeling emotional as the credits started rolling and I looked to the woman next to me thinking she will surely hit me up for money now. Instead she said “Good story” and told me her name and asked for my name and we held hands for a few moments and she left without asking for a cent. I walked down Todd Mall to my car and looked at the stars and felt uplifted.

Glenrod

Well you may think te big story for us has been a new yellow tractor. News it certainly is but there’s a bigger story. Alice Springs the land of the big stories. Inspired by the Woods, I have had this goal to build a retreat hut for people who want to com eto our place and get away from stuff like tractors and spend queit time in prayer or contemplation.

These last two weeks with our friends Glen (the prophet) and Rodney his friend who knows a thing or two about building we have set about building this vision at the back of our block. It has grown from selecting a location to a real hut. For the design I was inspired by the huts I have slept in whilst bushwalking in teh Australian Alps so Ryan and John will know what I mean. It needed to look like its been there for awhile. Now that is tricky because I didnt want to spend much money so you have to use what you can find whiuch is also kind of fun. We’ve scrounged around for corrugated iron, and windows, and doors. Rod wanted to put trusses in it which I dont think are veru Australian Alpsish but they are certainly spivvy. Glen wanted to put in a stone floor by using the rocks on the property. All in all its been pretty bloody good fun and Glen and Rod are my heroes. Prophet and Building Priest. How good is that.

I have a whole heap of pictures of teh development of teh hut which I’d like to put up but it sems I cant even get one photo to work based om my last post. Never mind I will try again. The hut is still to be finished but I am over then moon about this little place. I invite each and everyone of you to come and stay in it some time.