Breakfast and singing under the trees - country town Australia Day

I've come to Melbourne for a week or so, to celebrate some family birthdays.
My country had a birthday too, and here is one of the parties, in the old goldrush town of Kyneton.

 

 Golden girls from the RSL made us all an Aussie battler breakfast, on the barbie.

I just rolled out of bed, wandered down the street with the gang: my sister Sharon, Doc, and Kelly the WWOOFer from China. We all ate with my new family - the entire town of Kyneton.

Lots of farmers, with their beautiful little blessings

 

Children get so enthusiastic, and enliven the rest of us

Look at this!
I get enthusiastic too. 
See, I told you that success in life might be closely connected to naming things well. If its good enough for quick-draw fire fighters, it can't hurt having well-named towel cupboards.
Getting the little things in order reduces the burden of decisions and searching, frees you up for more important things.

Like raising curious, have-a-go children.
Some people do it.

Swimming in a sea of flags with grandpa

Nanna's jewel

These little wonder women have achieved something I haven't yet worked out how to do, and brought a few more Australians into the world.

 

These guys had us singing, and gave us a good patriotic cry, with the Seekers song "I am Australian'.

Here are the lyrics, from the All Down Under Website, 

I came from the dream-time, from the dusty red soil plains

I am the ancient heart, the keeper of the flame.
I stood upon the rocky shore, I watched the tall ships come.
For forty thousand years I've been the first Australian.

We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian

I came upon the prison ship, bowed down by iron chains.
I cleared the land, endured the lash and waited for the rains.
I'm a settler, I'm a farmer's wife on a dry and barren run
A convict then a free man, I became Australian.

We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian

I'm the daughter of a digger who sought the mother lode
The girl became a woman on the long and dusty road
I'm a child of the depression, I saw the good times come
I'm a bushy, I'm a battler, I am Australian

We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian

I'm a teller of stories, I'm a singer of songs
I am Albert Namatjira, I paint the ghostly gums
I am Clancy on his horse, I'm Ned Kelly on the run
I'm the one who waltzed Matilda, I am Australian

We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian


We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian

I'm the hot wind from the desert, I'm the black soil of the plains
I'm the mountains and the valleys, I'm the drought and flooding rains
I am the rock, I am the sky, the rivers when they run
The spirit of this great land, I am Australian

We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream and sing with one voice:
I am, you are, we are Australian
I am, you are, we are Australian!

We are one ….. We are many ….. We are Australian!

I'm going to keep on thinking about this song. 

The reason it touches people might be that it tells a strange truth, that our boundaries are set a lot further than we think.

It might be that my little life is still being run by all those collective ancestors. Its pretty certain that their anxieties and survival machineary are a part of the fabric that made me. Maybe I could say 'thanks, but not thanks guys' when the emotions they bequeathed me start sending me down outdated paths.

But maybe I could jump onto their hopes and dreams, and see where they lead me. Hoping and dreaming is what ancestors were good at - they had little else. 

Today is a very good day to be strong and free and alive in Australia, and I'm enjoying a rare burst of patriotism today.