A long and winding road
Journeys this way and that.
The highways, my beloved Glass House back ways.
The wide open spaces between Esk and Kilcoy to
Hampton and into Toowoomba.
The landscape beautiful and endless,
Sometimes miles of green and rich plains,
Onwards, forwards, sometimes many paces backwards.
Though always along the long and winding road of life.
Overwhelmed sometimes by the lush green of the Glass House;
The macadamia and citrus farms.
Semitropical and only marred by the Desmodium -
not a good look as these vines flourish,
And too few people are willing to tackle the blight on an otherwise iconic landscape.
As the trees and bushes are smothered without the light.
Just darkness ever increasing as though it is always night,
For what were once healthy and flourishing trees,
are crippled to their knees.
To nourish and once again flourish must be possible,
we must always believe the impossible can become possible.
Just as those managing grief, loss and intense pain,
live another day to achieve and climb their mountains,
face their demons and move from the impossible, to the possible.
(From 'Storm Clouds & Silver Linings; My Journey' by Tom Stodulka)
Life will always throw some challenges beneath our feet and sometimes these can be very overwhelming. We can feel heavily weighted down with adversity. As Einstein said “Adversity introduces a person to himself or herself”.
Many of my poems reflect on the challenges we regularly face and despite these, we often make a go of things and strive ever upwards and onwards. There is much to be grateful for.
We can all reflect and consider these past few days as we became transfixed and were so uplifted by the rescue of the young boys and their soccer coach. What a challenge those lads and their amazing teacher were thrown and yet, they got through what really was an impossible situation. Calm, patience and endurance kicked in and hundreds of people across the globe took on the boys’ situation. The world watched and many prayed or just hoped for a successful mission.
As I said in this poem “Just as those managing grief, loss and intense pain, live another day to achieve and climb their mountains, face their demons and move from the impossible to the possible”.
As we travel through life, be it on the highways and backways throughout Australia’s iconic and magnificent scenery, we have time to reflect. We can think of our ancestors as they took on their almost impossible mission creating a new Australia, opening up the land for farming and eventually mining. Many of us have benefited by their amazing efforts and achievements, others were displaced. There were winners and losers as there are in most battles.
Despite the impact on those dispossessed and the impact on the victors; through good will, patience and endurance Australia and its diverse population generally work through the pain and stresses of the past to move from the impossible to the possible.
Tom