Out On Country

I'm a Gamilaraay woman, but I don't live on my Country.

Sometimes I think that's why I appreciate getting out on Country so much.

Life can feel very small when it's reduced to routines. 

Nappy changes. Laundry. Emails. The same road. The same walls.

Then I'll spend a day out on Country and remember how much bigger the world is.

I don't really know how to explain it.

It's not some dramatic, life-changing experience. It's quieter than that.

It's sitting beneath a tree.

Watching the light change.

Listening to birds instead of podcasts.

Feeling the sun on your skin and realising you've spent far too much time indoors.

I always leave feeling calmer than when I arrived.

Not because anything has changed, but because something inside me has settled.

Maybe it's because Country asks nothing of you.

It doesn't care about your to-do list.

It doesn't care if the washing is folded or if you've replied to that email.

It just is.

And for a little while, you get to just be too.

I think we spend so much of our lives rushing from one thing to the next that we forget we're allowed to stop.

To look around.

To breathe.

To notice.

Getting out on Country reminds me of that.

Every single time.