Thursday 3 April 2014

change is in the wind...

I think I’m going to stop writing this blog. I have lost interest and want to spend less time on computers and gadgets.  So this may be my last post.

Since our return from such an amazingly beautiful week at Heron Island, I have felt unsettled. I sulked for a week once we got home unable to accept suburban living, we all did.

Now I am left feeling like the way we all live our lives is so out of whack with nature and what is really important. Self-obsession, celebrity, vanity, greed, consumerism, keeping up with the Jones’… It’s all wrong. I am craving a more simple life.

I’m not into religion or spiritual bollocks, but I do strongly believe that as humans we do feel more fulfilled and we have more sense of purpose, when we are living surrounded by and appreciating nature. When we take time to actual feast our eyes on the real beauty of what is all around us - trees and clouds, the stars and sea. The world is an amazing place and the animals and marine creatures that live on it are incredible. They are inspirational and humbling. And it breaks my heart that we are destroying their habitat, killing them for trinkets, ‘medicine’ or health supplements. That we are enslaving them for our amusement in zoos and parks, and we are polluting the environment so that in years to come there will be nothing left and the sea will only contain slime.

Seeing hundreds of baby turtles hatch multiple times a day, and having the privilege to witness turtles lay their eggs, swimming with reef sharks and diving with a huge majestic manta ray, watching eagle rays soar into the sky and dive into the ocean, being surrounded by schools of beautiful fish, spotting bizarre alien-like marine creatures, watching shooting stars and walking in electric blue moonlight – these are the things that make me feel alive!

I want my kids to be influenced by people who are making a difference with their lives, who support causes and fight for change. People, who follow their passions and dreams, not people who are just motivated by money, power and a career in an office.  At Heron Island we met young people who had done more than most people do in a lifetime – participating in research trips to view wild Orcas or tag sharks and manta rays, spending time in Antarctica volunteering on environmental programmes, crewing on Sea Shepherd boats to save whales and dolphins from being slaughtered by the Japanese…

I want to make a difference. I want to be a role model for my kids and introduce them to another way of life. While living in the UK for my formative years, I was so ignorant of world issues and environmental causes. Travelling opened my eyes and now living here in Australia, living by the sea and being able to see the difference people can make (good and bad) makes me want to choose a different life - one that makes me feel fulfilled, one that matters. 

Or, maybe I’m just having a mid-life crisis and turning into a hippy!