Pretty simple...

I went for a beach walk at Yorkey’s Knob, Far North Queensland, after my morning run. Yorkey’s is about 10 – 15 minutes from where I live. I was walking along, in my sweaty running clothes thinking how nice the morning was, how simple, beautiful and uncommercialized the stretch of beach is and how peaceful I felt at that moment walking in the water and scrunching my toes in the sand that dissolved beneath my feet with each rush of waves in and out. Simple. Easy. Peaceful.

This year, for me, has been pretty tough for many reasons but I have endured because to do anything but would go against my nature. Walking along the beach reinforced that whatever I do is okay and it’s what I’m supposed to do. Whatever I think is right, will be right and the battles I fight are justified because fighting for another’s honour is important even if I lose everything defending it. And in the end? I know the hope for a simpler life, without all the crap of this year, is obtainable and it’s just a matter of keeping faith in myself. It’s pretty simple really. Endurance + determination = self belief.

Beach walking -  good for the soul.   

Simple fact...

AUSTRALIA has a new Prime Minister. His name is Kevin Rudd.

Three years and three days on from the day he was knifed by the faceless men, the former PM has been returned to the Lodge following a secret ballot called by Ms Gillard.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/kevin-rudd-to-challenge-pm-julia-gillard-for-labor-leadership-tomorrow-morning/story-fni0cx12-1226670143790

Following her defeat, Ms Gillard confirmed she would not contest the safe seat of Lalor at the 2013 election and has nominated the NDIS, carbon tax and Gonski reforms as key achievements of her minority government.
She said she was "proud" to be the nation's first female prime minister and despite the attacks she says she suffered, she thinks over time it will get easier for women to hold the top job.
"It will be easier for the next woman, and the woman after that and the woman after that. And I am proud of that," she said.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/special-features/labor-leadership-live-kevin-rudd-returns-julia-gillard-loses-support-of-partyroom/story-fnho52jj-1226669921693

Simple fact - ruthless, ambitious people are not defined by gender. A knife can be held in the hand of anyone. Gillard did nothing to help women in politics. That she thinks she did and made this a gender debate indicates to me she had lost touch with the Aussie people and women in particular. 

Simple...

I have this photo that my father gave me when I was last visiting. I’ve been looking at it a lot of late. Why? Because it’s family and it interests me. It’s late 1961 and my father was due to go to Vietnam shortly after and my mother is the dark haired lady in the middle of photo between to the two larger ladies – my maternal Grandmother Elsie (left) and my paternal Grandmother Alice right.  One of the reasons this photo appeals to me is Elsie and Alice are chalk and cheese. One is the quiet country mouse Elsie who always, as the family will tell you, waited for her prince to come and some would tell you she should have waited longer. And then there’s Alice. A rough diamond, drinker and brawler who raised 13 kids in the slums and wasn’t always a good woman. And my mother. So young and completely unaware what was headed her way but clearly happy. The rest are aunts I believe.

Look at these people. In 1961 they weren’t fancy dressers. They didn’t expect much and made do with what they had without complaining. They are plain simple folk. Look at us at now. Would we go back to a time that was so simple? No. Of course we wouldn’t because we’re spoiled. Yeah. You are. I am. We all are  in the western world.

And no, I look nothing like my mother or father which, as a child, had me happily believing I was adopted until my mother, always the realist told me to snap out of it. See? Simple folk. Simple realities.        

Zen simplicity...

So a couple of months ago I saw a Buddhist monk walking along the side of the road about 5 minutes from where I lived. It was an unusual sight in the middle of a rainforest valley. He looked like he should have been walking in Tibet. I thought I was dreaming it so I doubled back in the car and went to have another look. He had disappeared. Huh. I conceded I was mad and went on my way. Mad is ok. It’s works for me. You have less to explain when you’re nuts. Today, I saw the monk again. He was stoically trotting along in his robes and sandals with an umbrella in hand. I waved at him. He waved back. I drove on thinking to myself that it’s nice, that despite his calling, he is realistic enough to not expect the God he worshipped to protect him from rain. Would that all religion were so simple.