It has been nearly 18 months since my last visit to Australia and I love being back. I can echo the words to the song “I still call Australia home” as it resonates with my heart. Australia is the best country in the world, and I am reminded of that each time I visit and everytime I leave.
I love the natural beauty of Australia. It is a land of vast bushland, incredible beaches, wide-open spaces and convenience. When I am here I find myself enchanted by nature and engrossed in Australian TV shows (especially Master Chef). I watch the news and enjoy hearing Aussie accents and understanding the humour that undertone all forms of communication. When I’m out I delve into foods that I can’t get overseas and relish in the fact that I know where to buy all my favourite things. Here I actually get to enjoy cold weather and view the seasons change. Even the small things like flushing toilet paper down brings me unending joy.
So why leave? Even though I love this country as a teenager I had a strong impression that I wouldn't live in this Great South Land forever. A bit of a strange thought when I do love it so much, but my heart is for the nations and I love exploring new places, learning from other amazing cultures and leaving pieces of my heart in different corners of the globe.
Even though I may be visiting my homeland right now it is not really “home”. Nowhere is completely home for me as things are constantly swapping and changing in my life. I have never settled in the section of Australia that my parents now live and even though I am here amongst my “people” it seems that they have moved in various directs that leave me bewilded, lost and left behind. It causes my heart to ache to witness a loss of community and the rise of the individual. A nation that is self-focused, that has lost sight of what it means to be in need just tugs deeply at my heartstrings. As I look around I see people bustling around spending money on masses of unneeded items but not thinking about the plight of others. I hear raised voices and colourful language as people pass each other by. It is the complaining I hear when people vent their frustration about things that that don't seem a big deal to me. I witness people more obsorbed with their gadgets than the person sitting across from them. It is that lost of community and connectedness and though it all I realise that I am also a foreigner here.
Thankfully there are still those within this nation that have a heart of compassion and I long to learn from them about how they find a balance to it all. I want to turn to them with eagerness to learn rather than my quickness of judge because this place is so different to Cambodia.
Maybe someday soon I will get to return to Australia for an extended period and I can adjust again to its quirks and enjoy its beauty. I would love to explore hidden recesses of this country and maybe God might direct me to a new nook of it, to settle and minister into. Only time will tell.
