Coming out of the deep...

I have heard thy prayer, I have seen they tears: behold, I will heal thee. (2 Kings 20:5)

Journal entry from my last day in Australia.

The ocean's methodic pulse
against the shore
can so easily put me to sleep
on the soft sandy beach.
Time and its linear path
carries me along too fast or too slow.
It never seems to find
the perfect pace.
What is the perfect pace?
Where is my perfect place?
Where is my contentment?
It must be in You
for everthing else has room for improvement.
When will I stop looking elsewhere?
My conclusions always bring me back to You.
Is it possible to be content while here on earth?
I think so...
You have made it so.
Your Son is the path,
Your Spirit is my guide.
Will I let your Spirit guide me?
Is your Spirit a distant guide
that I must constantly keep up with?
Does Your Spirit remain close at all times?
Is there effort or lack of effort
that will control my success in walking in Your Spirit?
What does total surrender look like?
How does total surrender of myself come about?
In small pieces
or one big transformation?
Which would be less painful?
I don't know, but less pain
is what I will hope for...

I shall continue.

Even though this blogspot was originally set up for the Australia trip, I think I will continue on, just not today.

Home, safe and sound

Chad and I went on a walk today, and I remarked how tame our country feels. I can confidently say that I'm not scarred of the copper head snakes or water moccasins that may be living in our yard, because I survived Australia.
Although my life was never threatened in Australia, well maybe on the bus lane : ), my senses were heightened to my surroundings. Here are a few of examples, taking a ferry over a crocodile infested river, or snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef where reef sharks live, plants that can make you feel sick for a week by just touching them, 9' python hanging around somewhere over my head, and the list goes on, you can see how coming across a 6" copper head while mowing, doesn't really do much to get the adrenaline pumping.

Anyway, just wanted to post this one last blog to let you all know that we are back, safe and sound. Also, thanks to all of you for keeping up with our trip! It was great being able to share our trip with everyone and to read your comments. It was great to see us all stretched into the world of technology thru this blog spot, myself being stretched the most.
Looking forward to sharing our trip in person with you all.
Amber

in Port Douglas

We've made it to Port Douglas without incident. It was a long trip -- 14 hours, 1150 kilometers --but we made it in one piece, physically and emotionally. The latter was sketchy for the last stretch though.

Tomorrow we're off to the Outer Great Barrier Reef -- then up to Cape Tribulation the day after.

Unfortunately, we are unable to post pics. We seem to be having uploading issues. Any suggestions there, Scott?

Until next time, Curtis

surf's up and koalas for the birthday girl

Heather was the only brave soul willing to take on the cool Australian Pacific. She got off to a rough, hair-rising start but was riding out the waves by the end of her lesson. Perhaps hers is not the destiny of "Endless Summer," but she had a good time.

The day after, she got to check off a "thing to do in her lifetime" list -- holding a koala bear. Sadly, there are few left in the wild, so we went to a Koala sanctuary in Brisbane. I've posted one pic here, but another one is available on http://www.koala.net/

Coming home from Brisbane, we (that is, I) had our most major driving incident. Somehow, I turned into a bus lane (next to the motorway). We went several miles before being able to get off the lane, and we passed throuh two bus stops -- complete with people waiting for their bus as we drove through the passenger pick-up platforms. Needless to say we got some strange looks.

Today was our "relaxation" day before heading north. The waves were curling quite well today, so we watched some serious surf dudes/ettes in the wave curls. Heather and I ventured a bit far out on the rocks, where we were greeted with a crashing wave about head tall. Other than being soaked, suffering a blown-out flip-flop (where's Jimmy Buffett when you need him), and cut feet, we survived, though the crowd behind us got quite a laugh.

On to Rockhampton tomorrow -- one night in the CoffeeHouse Inn (yep, on top of yet another cafe). Then, we're off to the tropics in Port Douglas. We'll be offline for a couple of days, so we'll catch up then....

Curtis

PS -- I've tried for two hours to post pics of Heather surfing to no avail. So we'll try again later... You'll just have to wait to see the hair-raising photo.

Happy Birthday Scott!

Hey, Mate. Happy birthday, OZ time. I promise we'll have a good time on your behalf today -- even though it is cold and raining.

Anyhoo, have a good day today and tomorrow. Having folks on both sides of the date line allows you to celebrate twice.

Cheers,
Curtis, Heather, Amber, Chad