-en route to Singapore, en route to Melbourne
Kiss today goodbye and tie me kangaroo down, I am on my way to Australia and the building of a new life in a place where, for decades, I have only -- and ardently -- dreamed of living...knowing it was a goal unattainable. And, here I am.
I have left cities, before; many of them. Each time, I have departed with a sense of having completed something and with feelings of excited anticipation for the challenge that lay ahead. Onward, upward, outward...first start to the right and straight on 'til sunrise...
My departure from New York and the U.S. has been more deeply complex. For one thing, the complete extrication from a society is a very different process than the transfer of services from one city to another within the same country. Canceling subscriptions, shutting down phone service with no forwarding message to be left, emptying out an apartment and dividing everything between what is to accompany one into the future and what is to find use in other lives in other ways; all this has carried with it such a strong sense of finality and import...and stirs deep emotions.
Many hours later...
Aboard Singapore Airlines Flight 0217 - still traveling - 3hrs 25min out of Melbourne
-where it is now 4:50pm on the day of my arrival...at 8:20 tonight
After hours of flying over the bluest blues of the Indian Ocean, we are just now crossing over the northern coastline of my new home continent. As we pass over the crashing line of surf, there lies a vast expanse of brown and red; even the roads, down there, seem to be of red clay, very sparsely lacing the landscape with their open network. For the next three hours, we'll be flying over Australia in daylight; and I can absorb the expanse of this country...will we successfully adopt one another?
It is now beginning to settle on me, more solidly, the magnitude of this undertaking. I am flying solo as is is possible to fly. No friends nearby, no family, a new and powerful love left behind; I shall be spending great amounts of time with myself...
10,000 miles away from home, and I am about to take all the lessons I have learned about myself and apply them here. I know that I must keep in mind the real effect I often have on those around me; not only my ability to teach, inspire and create but also my unintentional ability to sometimes intimidate and seem confrontational when often my intent is simply to clarify. Intent doesn't matter, effects and results matter. I bring all this to a new table... All the unique qualities that are a part of my makeup in an up-to-date package; all of value, some of volatility, each depending on the level of power I put behind them. So, awareness and moderation will be watchwords in this new context and culture.
The redness of Western Australia stretches beyond the horizon, on a hazily clear day. The magnitude of this place is moving. The magnitude of what I am undertaking is more profoundly stirring, still...
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