#life

Sunday, October 19^th

There have been no words to describe these days adequately. When you are finding the constant need (over and over, again and again) to pinch yourself, to find some way to validate that yes, this is actually your life. And it really is this good.

I have been adventuring. I have been laughing. I have been working my little teacher/tutor/sales rep butt off! I have been exploring my own home town, and surrounding suburbs. I have been drinking and slow dancing and counting stars and swimming in waterfalls. I still smell like campfire, the sand has just become a second skin, faded glow sticks keep appearing in the different pockets of my life. I feel like I am meeting someone new (and incredible) every single day. I am playing tour guide to my Canadian blondies, feeling like such a native to the Gong.

I feel so solid here. So sturdy, so certain. I have never felt I truly belonged anywhere the way I feel that I belong here. In every single sense of it; I belong here in this sand, in this city, in this skin. I feel so sure if who I am here, even if I don’t know who I’ll be tomorrow (& that is the best part about it).

It is a sleepy Sunday. The kind of sleepy provoked only by a full day of sun & two solid nights of celebration. Back to back silly, giggly, flirty nights of too much wine, tequila and cinnamon, swapping sips of Jim Bean, snuggled under a beach blanket with someone I just met an hour ago. And I am having all of these almost annoyingly constant realizations that this is exactly where I’m meant to be. Right here, under this blanket, under these stars, next to this campfire, swapping life stories with this unabashedly young Aussie grommy. And there is absolutely nowhere else I’d rather be, and not a single soul to tell me otherwise.  

 It is a satisfied sleepy. That things have just been so good, so good that my body is happy to just rest for one arvo, taking it all in. This is my first real handful of hours that I have had nothing to do but sit, write, giggle & gossip with my two blonde babes. I’m so happy they are here. It has been such a nice week, re-experiencing the wonders of new arrivals right along with them, remembering exactly how it felt to experience all of these Aussie firsts only 5 months ago. And they are already finding an apartment and rearranging return flights and swiping right to some of the Gong’s finest and it all just makes me so happy ;).

Last weekend was magical. A handful of top-notch Aussie lads took a herd of foreigners up to the Blue Mountains to show us some of New South Wales’ most impressive lookouts and little hidden treasures. It was just such a wild experience, being one of 42 foreigners, one of just 5 Canadians in the mix of so many other beautiful international souls. We were from Mexico, Holland, Sweden, South Africa, New York City, France, Brazil, England, etc. etc. etc. And we were one big happy family by the end of our adventure-packed weekend.

We started in Glenbrooke and then hiked through Linden to Paradise Falls. We had lunch through the Leura markets and took 40-person selfies at Pulpit Rock lookout. In Katoomba we learned the story of the Three Sisters rock formation and went off-roading through Wentworth to our campsite in Ingra. Then we spent all of Sunday at the bottom of Wentworth Falls, sprawled out over the cliffs and water pools, playing in the waterfalls, mixing, mingling, meeting so many new, wonderful, equally curious travellers. I really fell for a few of these happy people, and it was so nice to see so many of them again already this weekend.

It’s all I’ve ever wanted; to just meet new people and be my own new person, absolutely whenever I feel like it. To learn about new people, to learn about myself through my interactions with new people. For those new people to become familiar people, to become important people, to become significant people. To become important and significant and familiar to someone else. To many other people. To as many people as I can connect with. And I am finding so many opportunities here to connect. To discover and uncover and experience and express.

And taking all of these opportunities, I have just met the greatest people. People I want to call my best friends for so many years to come. People I want to inspire me and share their secrets with me. People I want to travel with and room with and work with! People I meet one-off, and we’re swapping stories and phone numbers and sweet midnight kisses thinking we might actually see each other again, but feeling perfectly happy knowing we probably won’t. People that are teaching me to be less ignorant. People who live as simple proof of how easy it is to just be good and treat each other well and speak kindly and live freely. Effortlessly. People I am seriously considering starting real new journeys with. Because maybe it’s time to allow myself to.

But then again, I am just still so content here in my own solo odyssey, meeting and learning and inspiring and smiling. And I love that I have the options, and the freedoms, to do and be whatever each new day requires of me. Nothing more, nothing less.

Life. It is just so groovy. So breezy. So, so easy. How many people can even say that? Uhg.

Life. It is so good.  

{& this is exactly how I feel}