Numurkah to Stathmerton

Numurkah to Stathmerton

(Sat 7 May 2022)

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Woke around 6am. Said "Good morning," and "thanks for the lovely sleep." Went to the loo, with phone (& glasses) in hand. You think of all kinds of things on walks, and at times, like this. A wonder came to me, if one day I should learn to pray. But another part in me asked "Why?" 

Hurriedly getting dressed, packing things, to go down for a coffee. Hope to hear from Latisha today. She is a lady who lives here at Numurkah, but who cleans the Gazebo Motor Inn where I hope to stay tonight, in Strathmerton. She was happy to take my pack today… woo hoo!

A home hardware place let me look through their trollies. Got to thinking about the like - especially for carrying water in the longer stretches. Round the corner, I talked with Geof about his trolley (that's now got ukuleles in it). He's ridden a push bike around Australia with a little single wheel, BOB (Beast Of Burden) trailer.. 

 today i'll consider this more.

Then walked down Numurkah Road, got a coffee and sandwich at small Katunga, & kept straight on North to the highway and right to Strathmerton. 

Sang, made up ditties, songs, a poem, rhymes. A lot of fun. Making up a counting system for hands, for presenting spoken word stuff.

It was cold, so i jogged, walked, jogged etc, & kept eating trail mix. Got in about 3pm. Made good time, then showered, washed my clothes in the shower. Lay down with my feet up for half an hour. Bummer, I just recalled they forecast rain at midnight. Might stay here tomorrow too. Hung the clothes up inside with the aircon on 24°C. I think they'll dry.

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To-Night…

About 4:40pm I walked out to get food before everything shut. A nearby builder gave me the run-down, & I went down to the General store for milk & cereal, but it's shutting down on Friday and it's  out of a lot of stock. Got a few biscuits, and some breaky juice and a cold coffee instead. Talked for a while with the retiring shop owner and his wife. They enjoyed Chicken Parma the other night at the pub, which is the only place for dinner in town. 

Had a drink at the pub until the bistro opened at 5:30pm, ordered a Hawaiian Parma (as the shopkeeper has, so the lady told me). Wow, delicious. Made me think how over-the-top creative love must be, for stuff like this to be available to our taste buds. 

(Wrote a poem about that, after the meal, that I would have thought "heretical" or at least "going too far" just 10 yrs ago. And I realized that experience can change what you mean, or what ways words and  metaphors can mean things, so it's probably just for the eyes of creative love and me, which is in itself a change and growth for me. My own history in this one area helped me understand wise men and sages in the past who said things like "I have much to say that I can't yet tell you, for you can't yet take it.")

About 30-40 people from football or netball or some sort of sporting teams inundated the bistro just before I finished. When I was standing to leave, one of these young people, Mitch, asked me what I was doing, and why, & I told him about the walk, and that I had a bunch of reasons, one of which was Movember for men's health. He didn't ask much more except where I was staying and who was paying for it, and if anyone else was with me. I told him I was at the Motel, that I'd paid for the night already, & said no-one was with me at the moment, but I expected sometime soon, that someone would be. He said he had a lot of respect for me, but he didn't have any cash. He used his phone to look at the QR code & get to the Movember site. We'll see what  happens. His mate came past. Here they are:

Mitch (on the right), and his mate Kynan (on the left). 

Well, Stranger things have happened as I've found,

with serendipities beginning to

abound, as we walk on this holy ground,

and as I thought to write this I met - who?

So, Aaron was a stranger in the night

I passed just now, 's I went to "online meet"

good friends I've know for long, and some I might

know better, and some others I just greet…

And I was sure that all creative love

would focus none the less on him or me.

And as we talked, I viewed us from above,

and knew divine appointments still could be. 

We might connect again (who knows?), if I

would stay another day, to have a break.

But that will be my partner's job, to try

that kind of thing. My job's to keep awake

to what creative love is up to now

& join in where I can, not as a boss

or senior partner in this thing somehow,

but as a junior, learner, more a loss.

If truth be told - and sometimes it should not;

until it is displayed for certain sure,

with evidence in action, quite a lot,

to give what's told a chance to root, endure,

and grow in soil that's fertile, and bear fruits,

that are "selected by" the circumstance.

Then backwardly, indiginous pursuits

are hallowed, lifted up, and join the dance.

Aaron puts out the bins at the Motel where I'm staying. I said "G'day" as I passed him in the dark, and asked if he was going to the pub. He said he wasn't, but his house was through the pub grounds. We got talking - about life, the universe and everything.

Aaron reminded me that "It takes all kinds to make a world". And I thought that "thin places" (between the physical dimension, and any spiritual dimensions) might be experienced differently by different people. 

Then I recalled that one of my goals was to record people's stories of any experience of a higher power, or a spiritual dimension etc. Here is Aaron's (~5min.) story about that.

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