In the Thinking Caps book there is a piece about 'Calling Australia Home' and the values of mate ship, giving things your best shot and a fair go for all. Each year I fly over Australia 30 or 40 times and this wide, red dirt land disappears in 5 or 6 hours of reading, doing a crossword or two and having a meal. It has been many years since I drove across Oz (I hitched across several times in younger years when the World was a different place) and it really is a wonderful thing to do. In a slow drive across this land you notice subtle changes, hues of color, diversity of landscape and you sense the rugged and ragged beauty. You also appreciate some of the great challenges of distance that rural and remote Australian communities face. I am so glad we are not just all cities and I am so glad that we have taken this slower time (Coo-ee Time) to journey. To dip our toes into various beaches, to sense the heat of 45 degree days when the wind can cook you and then to enjoy the spray of a late sea breeze.
Years ago Macca and I wrote a song called Cooee Child based on a poem I wrote as Marc Diffen and I sat on the granite rocks outside of Mt Magnet. 'Go gently within the morning, go slowly within your day, go with your eyes wide open, Cooee Child the word is spoken... let's walk about this wondrous untouched land...' As we walk about this wide and wondrous land I am reminded to breathe deeply in nature, particularly when so much of our lives is in cities and on planes.
Thinking Caps on www.glenncapelli.com
