Life on the Edge

Oh, the gifts that flow into one’s life daily, if not hourly.

Looking down upon a group of school children from atop a tall grassed over dune yesterday, I couldn’t help but feel lucky. The sun was fully present, there was a gentle off shore breeze and the temperature mild. A perfect gift from nature. And, not just for me because, even though the students might not be totally aware of the gift their teachers and the day had given them, I’m certain that all 16 of those kids were truly enjoying themselves and feeling happy to be out of a “walled” classroom and into the great classroom of the ocean. The zings of exhilaration pulsing through their growing bodies (and developing hearts and minds) were gifting them with good health and a sense of well being not always present in an inner city, paved over play ground.

Even the post office has been generous.

Firstly, a gift box arrived from Zimbabwe care of Bev Reeler. She wrote:

“What can I send across the planet – what threads of Africa that can be held in your hands on the other side of the earth?”

Along with a shaman’s necklace, lucky bean tree seeds, a pinch of earth and seven feathers were three stones to be placed on top of the Peace Garden’s ancestral midden:
1 crystal rock—from the Zambezi valley, Deka river mouth near Victoria Falls
1 basalt stone—from the Indian Ocean, Mboyti, Eastern Cape
1 brown stone—from Mana Pools, Zambezi Valley

Bev conducts Tree of Life workshops for torture victims in Zimbabwe (for this and other environmental/social work she became a Windgrove Laureate last year). Taking her stones from the box, I arranged them at 12, 3 and 9 o’clock around the larger “key hole” or “tree of life” stone given to Windgrove by an aboriginal elder from Cape York, Australia four years ago.

The gifts keep piling up.

Also, in the mail came a monetary gift in the form of $5,000 from my dear friend, colleague and fairy-godfather, Paulus Berensohn. He, himself, was given money to pass on to three charities of his choosing and Windgrove was one of them. Such a wonderful gift will certainly allow the vision for larger artist-in-residence facilities to move off the drawing board and into windows, boards and nails.

So, if there are any more people out there with a desire to help the Windgrove Centre grow on any level, please send stones or checks to:

Windgrove Centre
Roaring Beach
Nubeena, Tasmania 7184
Australia