Life! An amazing journey that we are all blessed to experience. Without it we would not exist. There are parts of this amazing journey that try us to our limit. They push us and pull us, they cause stress and grief but when over are quickly forgotten. There is a message in all that happens within our lives and it is during the moment that we often cannot see it. Events in our lives often cause us to take paths we may not have chosen but paths that we are blessed to have experienced.
Good Gabble arrived at Taree NSW a couple of weeks before Christmas where we planned to spend time with family before moving on. As the new year emerged it was obvious that events were to take place that would try our patience, our finances and our plans.
The 30th January saw myself tear a ligament in my ankle which has meant time on crutches, a lot of sitting around, a lot of pain and a lot of patience. Samantha would also say a lot of patience on her behalf as she became my legs, looking after the family and attending to tasks. Without her life would have been a lot more difficult, I am ever grateful.
Today my leg is healing very slowly. I am still limited to what I can do but am up walking around. During this time I learnt a lot about myself. I learnt that I am not good at sitting still and become very frustrated when I must do so for long periods of time. I cope better with pain than I do being immobolized. With the pain and the frustration came the inability to focus and concentrate on the task of Good Gabble, another obstacle I had to deal with, forcing myself to focus and write.
Within a week of my ankle injury we experienced another blow with the break down of our car. First incident was that of failure of the auto transmission which, to us, came at a high financial cost. This started with the stress of blocking traffic in the main street of the shopping centre, a tow to the local Ford dealer, and another tow to another mechanic.
Within a couple of hours of having the transmission repaired and returned to us we were to break down yet again, this time an issue with the throttle within the computer. This lead to the same tow truck driver picking up the car, he surely had a smile on his face and laughter in his voice. Another cost, a phone call to collect the car and yet another issue. This time we did not even leave the mechanics yard before it preformed the same computer issue.
Today we sit at the caravan park with the mechanic scratching his head as to what the problem is and a huge dent in our pocket, which is to yet get bigger.
So life has thrown all its trials at us to start our year. I smile as I write this as time has passed and I have collected my thoughts and come to term with our change of plans. The car has taught me the value of what we have. We take for granted our day to day living and all we are blessed to have. Without them it opens our eyes up to our life, our expectations, our desires and our needs. With a sore ankle and no car we have had to approach life from a different angle, seeing the world from the perspective of those who are not as lucky as we are.
We have been blessed to have all of this happen in a place where we are comfortable and have made some lovely friends. We have set camp at Twilight Caravan Park in Taree where the owners are friendly, vibrant and a pleasure to speak with each day. Nothing is too hard and there is always time for a smile and chat. We chat with some of the permanent residence who are friendly and come from all walks of life, yet relate and accept each other for who they are. We have become close friends with a family who have set base for twelve months whilst there son complete's year 12. Like us they choose a life of working and wandering around Australia, travelling with their Markets On The Move truck.
So when life throws a few challenges your way, and it pours instead of rains, please remember that their is a rainbow coming your way. Our journey in this world would not be complete without these challenges as they are what make us who we are and help our world go around.
Live well......Love well......Laugh often.
Jennifer.
