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The grass is always greener, ain’t it so?

How much time do you spend thinking about the life you’d like to have? How much does this detract from your everyday life?

For me, it’s a real problem. I wish I was younger, prettier, thinner. I wish I had a house in the country with an animal menagerie and space for the children to run. I wish people were interested in my designs and I could make a living from this. I wish I could spend more time doing what I want to do….. I could fill the page with this stuff.

But what are all these thoughts, wishes, dreams going to do for me long term? If they motivate and inspire me to live better, then good. But, if they become a weight that I carry around in the form of restlessness and dissatisfaction? – not good.

From a very young age I wanted to be a singer and entertainer. With a little work I was able to make this happen, albeit on a smallish scale. People would be wowed by the fact that I was out there doing this, but let me tell you the reality. Lugging heavy sound equipment around prior to setting up, performing “popular” songs that I personally hated (Kylie, you did me a great disservice!), breathing in the second hand cigarette smoke of a collective room (before the new smoking laws came in), dealing with drunken hecklers, then hauling all that equipment away again before hobbling (high heels – ouch!!) into bed at 3am, only to get up a few hours later to care for my family. Sound glamourous?

I know what I need to do to feel happier, it’s just that saying it is easier than doing it.

A couple of quotes I like:

“Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.”
Mother Theresa

“Perfection consists not in doing extraordinary things, but in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”
Angelique Arnauld

I must be off, the baby is crying again, which is a regular and ordinary occurence.

But isn’t she extraordinarily beautiful? 🙂

God bless you all.

I took a few pictures at the farm to share with you. This house was built by my father-in-law’s parents in 1915. He has lived and worked there his entire life.

I was speaking to my mother-in-law about the fact that I never appreciated the land as I do now (having also lived in this area from the age of 12 – 18). She said that when she married and came to live here as a young woman, having lived in Ballarat all her life she missed her original home. One day a visitor pointed out the colours of the various crops (wheat, canola and others) and how vibrant they were. She says now, at the age of 78 that she thinks it’s the “most beautiful place on earth”.

They had 10 children. I was lucky enough to marry one of them.

I have spent so much time on the farm it is like a second home. It has been a refuge in times of turmoil and I’m eternally grateful to my “other parents” for their kindness to me as an unhappy teenager seeking purpose to my life.

The garden still survives the long and unpredictable drought.

The chooks are always happy, healthy and producing new life and food to nourish.

Times have changed and things are different at the farm now, but I will always hold it dearly in my heart.