We had escaped Australia’s east coast and our boat due to two weeks of rain non-stop. As a cyclone was sweeping over Northern Queensland, we headed almost 1,000 kilometres into the outback to find some warmth and sun after a cold and wet La Nina summer. When we got to Mungo National Park the campground was closed due to flooding… The outback, like life, is all about being spontaneous and able to adjust to situations. This had allowed us to visit the Shear Outback museum in Hay as well as the Aerial Museum with it’s elders full of stories and history near Yanga National Park where we landed for a few nights under the stars.

Stopping all the sense injections from the outside leaves the senses surging for input. When they calm down, tranquilized by the scent of the gums and the simple red soil all around us, the mind still wanders. I catch it. I pause it. I invite it into presence. It arrives. Then escapes again. Then comes back. Then, reading my way through the Upanishads on this deep journey West and inwards, I pause not only to observe my thoughts, but to realise the Divine reflection in all, including in my own reflection in the Murrumbidgee, the Green Mother River.