yvalker (tip toe)

Tuesday, 16 September 2025

back into the long slow walk (of life - one choice after another)

Wednesday, 23 July 2025

RETURN-Peninsular Day 69, Wed23/07/25 (Driving Dubbo to Orange)

In Dubbo, after breaky with the Tosh family, "Happy birthday! (- for yesterday)" to grand-daughter number 1, & helped rheem out a bathroom tap. (Missed all the photos).

At Wellington, called in for a Coffee at Macca's (as I usually do), and saw Andy’s Service Station over the road:

I walked past here, and then with Andy through Wellington on my way North on Fri 8th July 2022, so I rang the door bell to hear what had happened to Andy since our last talk (he was leaving Wello) and found the post from 3 yrs ago … no response today… a story to hear there, but that might have to be next time I drive past..

Drove back to Orange, called in to see my lady in her lunch break, then home to lunch with two of my daughters and one grandson, followed by a little “Grand-Dad Kip”, pick up my lady after work, coffee together then back to a daughter’s house for after work drinks where we stayed for dinner…

Back in Orange… NSW.

Home again, home again jigetty jog. What a trip!

RETURN-Peninsilar Days68, Tue22/07/25 (Driving Grafton to Dubbo)

Around 8am I am leaving Mike & Di’s… where I met with some of their visiting friends too, (Chris & Jeanie)

Today before I drive, I am given help to deal with that reactive part of me… a certain grumpiness or cynicism in me regarding certain trends, and habits in parts of our Australian society, our people, & our collective choices. I still have a reactive edge, that is unlikely to be helpful. Oh, help! Creative love! I need your help more.

But this day, travelling, I listen to Lewis's sci-fi “That Hideous Strength”, and am filled with something hearty and sustaining.

I see enough the way forward for me…. Now the thing is to learn to do it, to practice it, to claim it as mine by choosing it regularly (over against other options for my responses). Step 1, step 2, step 3, & now it is a journey begun. Unless I stop taking steps, I will get closer. And if I am given the time, if I continue, I will be linking in with those motivating purposes, and the way this world has been made, I will know them, and be known by them.

I arrive just in time….

Tuesday, 22 July 2025

RETURN-Peninsilar Days66-67, Sun20/07/2025- Mon21/07/25 (Driving Brisbane to Grafton)

Monday 21/July/25, Leaving Mum & Dad’s… where I met some of their neighbours, (Wilhelmina Sun night) & Monday morning, the Newtons (Noel & Trish)...

Did a quick line drawing pic of Noel…

This "living" bit has some very scary aspects to it. But CREATIVE WORK for purposes in line with HESED (loyal love, friendship, keeping one's word faithfully...) appears to me to be the golden thread worth following.

I said goodbye, walked to the car and camper-trailer, where the gardener took a pic of Mum, Dad, & me in front of the car and trailer. (thanks mate!)

and I was off… to visit my “Alongsider” in Grafton (Mike) & his wife Di, where I arrived around 2pm.

Some other friends (Chris & Jeanie) arrived around 5pm and we caught up before and after dinner..

They asked some simple good questions about the walk .. in listening to my answers (& looking at good people’s responses) …

I became aware of a certain grumpiness or cynicism in me regarding certain trends, and habits in parts of our Australian society, our people, & our collective choices. It had a reactive edge, that is unlikely to be helpful. Oh, help! Creative love! I need your help again. That might have to be an area to think through (with help) as I travel the next day to Dubbo.

With 2 games of banana-grams at the table after dinner, it’s early to (shower &) bed - by 8:30pm.

Saturday, 19 July 2025

RETURN-Peninsilar Days62-65, Wed 15/07/25 - Sat19/07/25

Wed 16/07/25

Drop off my hitch-hikers at the Cairns Botanical gardens

& pick up Dad at Cairns airport around 9:30am, fuel up and travel to Mt.Garnet, where we have lunch with Adrian, then fuel and dinner at the Lynd (Conjuboy, Oasis Roadhouse), then more fuel and munchies at Greenvale, and Hahn River Roadhouse, and Charters Towers (where there were no powered site vacancies, so we drove on till the highway was blocked with a semi-trailer accident, then we turned back to the last rest area with a toilet (~5km), & set up camper-trailer and slept.

Thurs 17/07/25

With my Dad, travel from where we camped at a rest area after Charters Towers and before Ballyando Crossing. With a flat tyre before Clermont and two new tyres in Clermont, arriving in Rocky at about 7:30pm.

Fri 18/07/25

With my Dad, travel from Rocky (after having a cuppa with Mr. Carpenter, who was my Sunday school teacher at 10 yrs old; & from the house of the Follent family) to Brisbane

Sat19/07/25

Arrived in Brisbane last night. Visited a mate who mentored me for a number of years when I was at Uni. (He's got prostate cancer which has metasticized to "un-treatable, incurable" fast acting cancer.)

Another mate texted to chip me for not visiting him up in Atherton, but he told me he was too busy to talk, and needed to do 8 things to get out of his rental quickly, and only had time to talk when he was on his walk doing another job.

So now I'm not quite sure what to understand from gis communication. It sounds ambiguous... He can't afford to have people like me butting in to his life. He needs people like me butting into his life.

Well, sometimes things like that happen to me too.

Lucky my friends don't hold me to my worst moments of communication.

I'll trust creative love/friendship to give me the grace to do the same with him, as my friends have done for me..

Thinking of him now...

I'm hoping to be back in NSW by Mon/ Tues. And home by Tues/Wed.

Hope you are able to get that appointment with a third party, or health professional... & to be true to your newly-being-created self, like the Author I met in my mate’s book. Thanks for loosing him on the world. He is a blessing. Speaking the truth, being fair-dinkum, in a spirit of mate-ship and thoughtfulness towards (at least some) others sharing the planet with him..

Woke at Neil’s place, walked out and saw a mug which Neil rarely uses, because it disappeared for a while…

But it reminded me of a true statement that I have discovered myself…

but, with Jonny too, we had some coffee together… and…

..a picture popped out…

Neil & I talked about social capital: bonded, bridging, linking; with changes being described in books like () & enigmatic actions which woo, which create curiosity, which go beyond the official structures and into the scary no-man’s lands where people on the fringes live/exist etc. & new options discovered for neuro-divergent children around meal times and meeting times… very helpful.

Lunch with nephew’s family in Ipswich or Redbank Plains at their new rental house.

Afternoon with my Dad’s brother (my Uncle), near Redcliffe, Brisbane, then dinner, talk and bed.

Tuesday, 15 July 2025

RETURN-Peninsular Day61, Tue15/07/25

Tue15/07/25 we (Ella, Mathieu, & I)

@ The Archer River Roadhouse

At Coen… My passengers offer to pay fory lunch and coffee from Adrienne, at The Grub Truck:

James (& Kat) police said G’day… James had seen me on my way to Mapoon & had suggested I have a Cape burger, (or Mapoon Burger) at Mapoon.

And drew a pic of Adrienne

… By ~1pm

At Hahn River Roadhouse we filled with fuel and found that the trailer’s connection had fallen out and been worn off… we went on to Laura & found a way with two connectors to do the job… we bought some dinner and the connectors and it worked! Matthieu was a great help… we are heading for the Mt. Molloy campsite tonight, now with lights for night driving ...

RETURNING Peninsular Day60, Mon14/07/25

Monday 14/07/25 we (I was with Karen, & Joe)

got on at 6:15am & caught the ferry from T.I. to Seisia,

had some breaky at the Seisia Kiosk, with a fresh coffee and drove to the Jardine River… the ferry has just snapped the main cable, so is broken down… a number of folk in front go back to Bamagar to camp till it's fixed, so we move up to 5th in the line...of about 60 cars (& vans).

people set up camp, get fishing rods out, make new friends...

As we wait, Tony & Liz meet me again… the adventure is not over….

We set up our tents. Liz says they've got food to share if we're stuck there. Tony suggested Dr Amen’s book “Change your brain.” on Audible. I want to check it out.

Aaron & Annie from Irelandoffer to help with an oar to “boat” on some foam, over to the Roadhouse to get some food.

I draw Aaron in his spirax notebook.. but didn't get a photo of us, or him, or the photo (rats!).

Jarrod & Jacqui said G’day, coz we were all waiting to meet at the Jardine Ferry.. and Jacqui let me practice my drawing:

And Violet got a drawing in too.

We all talked for an hour or so,

(L to R) Cohen, Jarrod (back), Mark ( back), Eve, Meg (at the back), Violet, (immediately behind me), Jacqui, Emmett (front right) and they filled me with two cool beverages.. Thanks you folk.

Nelle (backwards of her name, Ellen) from Paaratte, on the Great Ocean Road, said G’day and we chatted for a while at the back of the ute…

Then @ ~4:30pm the ferry started up again.. we were the 5th in line… we might get through today??

Over by 5pm, found the trolley around 20km further on, & were “lucky" enough to snag dinner at Bramwell STN Tourist Park (they had sold out, but with the ferry breaking down they helped us out by making up lovely ham, cheese & tomato toasted sangas for us, & with a cold beverage, and a haveaheart… we made it to Weipa…& in bed by midnight! With a lot of fun and adventure inbetween. Yee-har!

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

miss ta walker?

The good that Jesus Christ called “God”

through hell & high water,

is walking, and has always trod

with his people, they’re his daughter.

It’s like there are two kinds of folk

who live throughout the Earth

- and I don’t mean the “sheila” / “bloke”

dichotomy, for what it’s worth –

I mean the kind who’re “open up”

to what they were made for:

it doesn’t matter: tiny bub,

or a hundred in the shade, for

they’re like God’s kids, his child-er-en,

his own daughter or son,

whether new-born, or two, or ten,

he loves them (and he’ll discipline

-not in that harsh, embittered way-

but still enough to learn

the worth of all they do or say;

they learn respect, and they won’t “turn-

-on ya”, and then just be diff’rent,)

they get God’s character!

They’re “open up” to love and when’t

causes pain, they still barrack ta

see it win. They have confidence

and know the mys-stur-y

of love that is it’s one defence,

won’t throw it out for just what’s seen!

These folk come in shapes and sizes,

cultures - all seem diff’rent,

but the thing that each one prizes:

's what eternity’s culture’s meant!

It means that power and glory are

by God owned, and on loan,

instead of them being "The STAR”,

they want God’s light of love more shown!

The others have already died,

some grieving has been done;

but plans of God are now being tried

to raise them up, each one.

Mean-while God’s still brooding, weaving,

walking throughout his world.

“Looks” have often been deceiving,

half (his grieving) has not been told!

Jesus told us his secret plan:

to hide within the weak,

the smallest, slowest, of human-

-ity’s face, is from where he’d peak.

We’re used to looking up to ’mpress

not down to beneath us;

so he who’s real, to real-ly bless

uses this ruse to bequeath us

his blessed image growing up

within our hearts & minds

and beings, that by showing up

will rule his world in ways divine.

I want to give more airplay to

the stories of these ones

who let God look on this world through

the eyes of his daughters and sons.

I want to walk just as he walks

I want to see as he,

to listen as he does (and talks),

let his story be told in me!

And to this goal I know I’ll slow

-ly keep on moving too;

a walker only, but I’ll go

on day-by-day walking with you.

Not only with self-discipline,

but with your true coaching,

one day, I’ll be the kind of man

that can handle man’s reproaching,

or human praise, and not become

sep-ar-a-ted from you,

and your care, in that christened ONE,

who walked the dusty streets then too.

Please now again, as long ago,

come walking in some skin

and bones, and let me see, please show

your world to me from eyes within.

(An audio recording at piano (draft 1) made Thur 13/03/2025)

Mentioning Models/ Motivations

Below is a reason, model or motivation (or two) for my walking. Some are contradictory, but may still never-the-less be achieved on a given walk; e.g. times of solitude, time connecting deeply with others may both be achieved on a walk with breaks in it & with options like establishing a daily rhythm of silence for the first hour on the trail of each day.

. The sound of the LORD God going for a walk in the cool of the evening. (on hearing which, Adam & Eve after their disobedience, instead of joyously joining in, went & hid. This was a sign of their real, previous, death. They were now in reality "The Walking Dead")

. Adam & Eve sent out of the Garden Paradise, to the East, to till the soil from which they had been made; & the son of Adam (Cain) being sent as a “wanderer East of Eden”. (cf Nerida’s sheepdog story) . Enoch, about a 7th descendant of Adam, even after the great disobedience, the death of humanity, who “walked with God for 300 yrs.” . Terah & his son Abram, are wandering Arameans given a command by God, to go somewhere in particular - along the lines of their current desires/dreams, though not in line with slumping into doing nothing. This response to God’s command turned their wandering into purposive action; it meant Abe was travelling until God told him to stop. Then Abram travelled down to Egypt & back, (to escape a drought), & was then told by God to walk through-out the land, to see where his descendants would be inheriting, “because I am going to give it all to you”. God seems to be into inheritances, gifts that you will pass on to others, where you can rejoice in someone-else’s delight. . Jacob, walks off hundreds of km. to run from his brother's vengeance, to his old relatives & safety, with nothing but a walking stick, & returns >7 years later with a whole family. . The “Exodus”- the WAY out of slavery in Egypt, & into being a free people under God in their own land. Normally a trip that took less than 2 weeks, but for them took 40 yrs, while they waited for everyone (almost; with 2 exceptions) to die, before the new Nation entered it’s promised land. . Immediately after their exit from Egypt, this people were to walk for three days into the desert to worship the Creator Spirit there. It was here that Moses was then told to walk up a mountain that was to all appearances undergoing a volcanic eruption, where he stayed for over a month, receiving the insight of the Ten Words as part of the Stipulations of a Covenant the Creator Spirit was making with this people. But “to whom much is given, much will be required”. Alongside awesome blessings for keeping their part of this Covenant, the people agreed to (about 9) awful curses if they did not. . Jesus saying to the 12 "Come & follow me", then through all the towns of Galilee heralding the announcement of the Emperor's coming near. . Jesus sending his 12, then the 70 (or 72), out in pairs, to cover all the towns where he was about to go (with no provisions). . The 12 disciples' trip to Galilee (after the resurrection), to meet up with Jesus, & get their new marching orders. . Jesus sending the 120 (10x12?) out accross the earth (into all the world) to make disciples of Jesus as God's Christ + Phillip with the Ethiopian Official.

The Israelites were not the only people to be given a land by the Creator Spirit, but (a remnant of) their oral & written histories have probably been best kept. The blueprint for the bones of an ideal society given to this fledgling nation involved whole communities travelling every year, the length & breadth of their country (admittedly smaller than Tazzy) to a central Temple to (not fake-worship & fake-serve another human peer, but to) truly-worship the great King who actually made all the land (as well as the sea, sky & stars in the wondrous universe given humanity). They walked as pilgrims, singing psalms of ascent, camping overnight, continuing on in the mornings until they arrived (admittedly nowhere was more than a few hundred kilometres from “the Temple in Zion”). This same people, within half a millenium of entering the land, were all walking barefootedly from Israel & their beautiful Temple, as captives & slaves (once again) to Exile in Babylon. The prophets of the Creator Spirit had warned them about reaping what they sowed, about God not being mocked & about his hatred of hypocritical “worship bands”, and these covenant reinforcement mediators invoked the covenental “curses” on this rebellious & headstrong adolescent nation. [though often with a strange edge of future hope for a remnant, who would be faithful] About a hundred years after the Exile of the Israelites of the Southern Israelite kingdom (Judah), the current ruling Emperor, Cyrus the Persian, & the next Emperor(s), in a bid to keep good with “The God of Heaven”, send a delegation of these people (from a few of the 12 tribes which together had made up the Israelite nation in it’s heyday under King David & his son Solomon) back to Jerusalem in their homeland, & to the work of rebuilding the city’s protective wall & it’s Temple. This journey is in hopeful “fear & trepidation”. Yeshua, as a baby, is carried to Egypt (& back) by his parents, to escape from the Emperor's representative in that area: "King Herod". Jesus travels back to Jerusalem's temple after the 40 days in the desert. Jesus being filled with the Spirit at his baptism & then sent out into the desert for 40 days [without food (& water?)] Jerusalem Jews (under Saul of Tarsus, after Steven's Stoning) travelling through the Empire. Franciscan Monks Celtic Monks Pilgrims in Spain