Globetrotters Monthly Challenge

Green — the Colour of Strength Resilience and Hope

We don’t need to travel far to have life-changing experiences

I have never been to Ireland, and I have never celebrated St. Patrick’s Day. In fact, only a few years ago, I learned about this special day celebrated by Irish people all over the world. So there is nothing I can say about this festival.

Yet, though green isn’t even my favourite colour, I have plenty of stories I could share. I had a few experiences that strongly relate to this colour, and mostly, in one way or the other, the stories bring hope.

I could talk about my trip to Canada. I went there in the spring of 2016, and I remember looking out of the window of the aircraft, thinking to myself, “Wow! This country is so green! Australia seems to have the bluest sky in the world, and Canada the greenest forests I’ve ever seen!”. But then, I already write about my adventures in Canada as part of another series, so I won’t talk about this here.

I could write about Jeffrey and Twinkles — they are green, each of them has their unique, very inspiring stories, and they even travel with me! So, I think their stories would classify too!

A couple of years ago, Jeffrey’s stories inspired people on Instagram (someone else shared them with my permission). Twinkles, with her behaviour and stories, influenced even George and thanks to her, he slowly started to change his negative perception of life. Then and again, Mr Grumpy has a positive reflection on life. But I will share their stories in a different series.

2019 — The Crescendo of 5 years drought; the drought that almost broke me.

Today I would like to share another story, which seemingly doesn’t have much to do with the green, but actually, it was the “green” that saved me. It saved my sanity and, in some respect, my life.

Before we get to the “green part”, I want to set the scenery. Those who haven’t experienced a real drought will probably struggle to understand why I found the tiny bits of greenery so lifesaving, but I hope this story and photos will help you to understand a bit.

From 2015 we were getting less and less rain. The temperatures were creeping up and up. With every year that came, there was less water and higher temperatures. Until the crescendo of the drought in the Spring and early summer of 2019.

I tried to live a normal life on the farm, look after my animals and plant trees and bushes, hoping the rain would come one day. But no, it wasn’t coming… Instead of the rain, a heatwave came… The maximum temperatures were between 35C and 40C, and the minimum wouldn’t get below 20C (not normal at all for my region).

If this wasn’t enough, devastating bushfires hit the region. At that time, I was home alone; George was travelling through Australia. I was told to evacuate, but I decided to stay and protect my farm (this is a separate story; actually, I was safer on my farm than at the evacuation point). Every water bomber flying above my home made my heart stop, and I was praying that they kept flying because that meant the fires were further away. I was lucky; the fires got stopped about 10km from my home.

The air was dry and hot. The dust and smoke made breathing a challenge. And on top of everything, the constant… “smell of death”… Wherever you went, you saw animal and bird decomposing carcasses. It came to the point that it was more than I could bear…

It was December 2019. George was back, and I said to him, “I can’t do it any longer. This drought will break me… I need to get away and see some green… I just want to see what grass looks like….”

Those who know me know that I have faced a lot of adversities in life, I went through trauma, sexual assault, discrimination, homelessness and much much more. However, I have never felt so close to a breaking point as that December 2019. The “smell of death” was simply much too much for me.

The life-changing trip

I couldn’t go anywhere far away because I still needed to feed my cattle and bring them fresh water. So I had to be able to go back to the farm every three days or so and look after my helpless animals.

I knew that Killarney got its first rain a couple of weeks before Christmas that year. Therefore I decided to pack the caravan, Daisy and Jeffrey and go there. George came along too.

As soon as I parked my caravan, I felt relieved. There was hope. One day we would get rain too.

I went for hours-long walks every morning and evening to relish in the green. Around lunchtime and early afternoon, it was much too hot for walks (the temperatures still were above 35C), so I sat in the caravan with the aircon running and looked out the window on the green patch of grass and smiled.

Every other day I drove back to the farm and fed my animals. Seeing them trying to find some tiny snack in the dusty endless desert broke my heart. They didn’t complain; they didn’t lament; they didn’t give up… They just did their best to survive. They waited for me, hoping for some food and enjoyed every tiny bit they got. There wasn’t much food, but they enjoyed what they got (at that time, cattle food was extremely expensive, so I could only afford the minimum to keep them alive).

Lesson Learned

The biggest lesson I learned was that relief will come at some point, regardless of how bad it gets in life. Things will change, and everything will get better again. It’s why we mustn’t give up. We have to hold onto hope.

And when it gets too much, when there is nothing we can do to improve our situation, we need to distance ourselves from the problem, gather strength and tackle it with newfound energy. Sometimes perseverance and strength mean to stop, get away and start fresh.

A few farmers in the area didn’t make it through; they committed suicide… Some had to sell their farms and start a new life somewhere else. But the majority is still here, and now they are thriving. In the last couple of years, cattle prices have been excellent.

Many people will say, “Yes, that’s all good, but I’m not a farmer. This has nothing to do with my life and situation”. Well, the farm is just a symbol of life; the green symbolises success. Whatever you are going through in life, however dreadful and hopeless your situation appears, it will pass. You just need to get through it, and better times will come.

It’s a pity that people distanced themselves from nature… If they stayed closer, if they could understand nature, their life would be easier… Animals are the masters of survival and make the best of what they have. We could learn a lot from them…

This article is in response to Globetrotters monthly challenge — “Let’s show some green”. If you would like to participate then check Anne Bonfert article for more details

After I finished writing my article I came across Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages response to the challenge which resonates with me very well, though I have never been to Africa… As I described in my article, in some respect I have experienced the feeling of desert…

I also enjoyed the story from Keith Kelley about his trip to Scottish Highlands, with wonderful pictures. I hope one day I will visit this rough but somehow gorgeous place too.