Congratulations Ineka
A Happy Australia Day for all who call this amazing Landscape home would be an awesome experience. I have no doubt that that is the intention for the majority of our diverse population of current citizens, permanent residents and visitors past present and future who enjoy the unique attributes and lifestyle this country offers. Most value their unique impression of what this ancient land, its wildlife and flora, its wealth of natural destinations and the essence that is a palpable yet often undefinable Australian Spirit reflects. An identity that inspires pride, fosters resourcefulness, resilience, creativity and innovation, births poetry, lyrics and music, film scripts, icons and landmarks, evokes wonder and emotions, stops us in our tracks, feeds and nurtures us, and teaches us more about ourselves than we may realize. This land provides for each of us, and we take from it and in turn contribute to it in our own way, and I embrace being a custodian of a parcel of it as an immense privilege and opportunity.
While I honour the difference of views expressed around the ‘rightness’ of celebrating Australia Day today, I moreso honour that I empathize with the mother who misses a child, a father who’s plans for his family have not quite been realized as he imagined, and a child who struggles to understand why the grown-ups she looks up to love her, are at times sad, angry or confused.
From my own experience, when I am responsible for my choosing to be happy wherever I find myself, I affect amazing change, and no, things don’t always go to plan…. But what if we are today fully present in what we are choosing to experience, and trust that the past is already healing through conscious awareness on so many levels. I cannot heal your pain as it is not mine to heal. I am however healing mine and that’s my incredible journey. Let today be a day of gratefulness rather than sadness. This landscape deserves Peace, Celebration and Joy. Enjoy this day and everyday as Joy is precisely the vibration of Reconciliation and how can it get better than this…
http://www.google.com/doodles/australia-national-day-2016-d4g-au-winner-ineka-voigt