Beach

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been developing a bit of a routine.

I get up at about 5:30 and cycle to a local beach where I sit and watch the sunrise. It’s how I like to clear my mind and I get a bit of physical activity.

Last week I took a little billy can, matches, some water a cup and a sachet of Indonesian coffee 3 in 1 so I could make a little fire and enjoy a brew. For some reason it just made me feel free to do this.

The fire is small and burns just long enough to boil my water. I sit and watch the embers as the sun rises then empty my excess water on the coals, cover them in sand and leave as the red begins to dissipate from the sky. Black cockatoos often fly overhead, there’s a pair of beach thick knees at the waters edge… Everything is in sync. It is a tiny bit of simplicity before I face the madness of my day.

I enjoy the satisfaction of growing and cooking food, fixing old things, handling natural materials. (I know it’s cliche and I sound like some twerpy hipster, but give me a break, I’ve always been this way!)

It’s Rosella season and I’d grown enough to get a few decent jars to share with friends. This year’s batch was my best yet!

During the Covid-19 crisis it was really hard to get flour, it seemed everyone wanted to bake but a friend got me some really nice wholemeal stuff and I was able to bake a couple of really nice loaves

A couple of weeks ago another friend gave me the rusty old meat cleaver he’d used for years in Arnhem land and later in Darwin. Apparently it had chopped everything from carrots to kindling and the necks of ill fated roosters.

I love old steel! I figured I’d clean it up and use it for cooking.

Rarely having enough free time to just sit down in front of the tv I decided on Saturday that’s what I’d do. So I got my chopper and some wet and dry sand paper and flicked through the SBS selection online. Came across an Australian program called the beach and thought I’d give it a go.

Other than the title I had no idea what this documentary series would be about! Well! It was as if the show was made for me! It was incredible, exactly the way I have been naturally leaning, searching for solitude, nature, using and maintaining old tools and machinery, cooking over an open fire!

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It blew me away in a very slow and personal way… As it was designed to do. And I imagine it has affected many other people in the same way. But for me I think it had a special message. It reflected so perfectly the direction my life has been headed.

I don’t know where to from here, but I feel assured and comforted to receive the subtle gift of this beautiful program. To encourage me to find my own peace in my own fire.