Friday29072022CE, out of Narrabri?... towards Moree.
Heard we might be in for some rain before I get to Moree, so, since the old one was pretty shabby, I redesigned and made a new top for my trolley last night. Woke, packed roughly, on the way to get some more glue (liquid nails) from the hardware store, then finished off my canopy at David & Gae's place. David helped with coffee, tools, materials, and advice, then sent me off with a blessing,
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and I left after noon, bought some pies for lunch, stocked up on muslie bars and tinned stew from Coles, and at 2pm I'm about to cross the first bridge on the way out of town North, with a tummy full of yummy Narrabri pies!
A sunny day, cloud strewn sky, cool breeze.
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Mt Kaputae and National Park on the hirizon. A perfect day for a walk!
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As I walk through Australia, I start thinking of Moses walking through a similarly dry area, over near Horeb or Sinai. I started to think about that sentence that came to him after he went to have a stickybeak at that bush that was burning, but didn't burn out. : "Take off your shoes, for the place where you are walking is holy ground.."
As a member of a fully Western-ized family group, this made no sense to me. But, recalling an earlier part of this walk, I had visited a friend on my way into Orange. Shin and his wife Makiko, are from Japan. When I walked into their home, I saw that they took off their shoes. So I did too. Shin motioned for me to be given some indoor slippers, which I squashed my big feet into and balance my way into the house. That experience taught me something about Eastern Culture. The house is where you take off your work day shoes, your sandals, the outside clobber you have for your feet. Inside you either wear special inside shoes (if it is too cold for your feet otherwise), or you have naked feet. This is the place, not of contract but of contact, of covenant. This is a family's nest, a home, the house of a family who is learning to love, practising love. The temple in the Hebrew scriptures was a holy place, a place where God lived. It was called "the House of God", or sometimes in Hebrew culture it was referred to as simply "the House". When I treat a part of the world as holy ground, I wonder if I am equating it with the house of God, a place where God lives. How beautiful. This whole Earth is holy ground, the house of God, how fun to think of the marriage of humanity with creative love, it was, and will be again, as we covenant with creative love and let creative love lead us (i.e. work on being responsive to creative love ourselves), our real home, together!
5:21pm; the sun is just about to fall over the horizon, and a car with a smiling man in it stops to see how I'm doing. His name is also Paul, and he works in Narrabri, but is going home to Moree. He double checks that I'm ok. What a thoughtful human being!
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A joy to share the planet with people like Paul. See his demeanor, in the photo, it gives away the effect of his presence.
What lively, colourful, beautifully silhouetted sunsets:
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thus, I pass some signs from above
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And finally stopped at about 6:10pm as Keith arrived to pick me up, at this sign (facing the other way):
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This might have been the best coverage of ground that I've made on this walk so far! (I jogged most of it, in the increasingly cooling air, with the trolley left near where I was when Keith said he'd come out and pick me, and it, up).
Then it was time to find and load the trolley, get back to the New Life centre which had the feel of a large family home, have a quick shower (while Margaret and Keith made my bed), and go out to the RSL (again, since David and Gae had started a trend last night). Then home to the New Life Centre again, for a cuppa, play a song on a guitar, write this up, and drop off to sleep earlier tonight than last night. The plan is to be up to leave here at 7:30am tomorrow morning, with the trolley. Thanks for such a generous offer Keith the introvert who needs cave time, and Margaret, the connector, who is energized by people and building meaningful connections, you work pretty well as a team.
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And it is obvious to me, benefitting from your sharing and hospitality, that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. When ever folk set out and be responsive to creative love in their life, and work, and time use, this seems to be an outcome. I think the model and help from the good leadership of Yeshua, and his way of life, his spirit of holy-ground, creative love, seems to be key. How fun.
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