A bit of Down-under

Jan 10th....my flight to Australia departs...I will be in a foreign land. As Robert Lewis Stevenson once wrote in an opening stanza of a poem:

Up into the cherry tree 
Who should climb but little me? 
I held the trunk with both my hands 
And looked abroad in foreign lands.

Like all poetry....or art, what you perceive of the meaning differs from what others might think, thus, does it make a difference then of what he truly meant, or...in many cases, didn't mean but later was implied by scholars?

None-the-less, Australia is my cherry tree.....just me. I grasp and hold tight of the trunk as I meander thru various visa's and permits, designed to keep COVID away. I seek out a way to be in Australia where I have, what at times seems like....lost relatives. A portion of my family reside in Australia and I haven't had the opportunity since late 2019, to linger in that foreign land. 

Yet now the measures to not just look abroad, as I have done that for awhile now, but to actually 'be abroad' ....exist. So I, now, in these weeks prior....lie in wait and gently bide my time, so yes, I am still just 'looking' for now. 

When in Australia I will reside with my crew....my daughter....my grandkids. With me I will pack, a fine binocular meant to welcome in nature and to offer, as I hope... a seed to my grandkids to build upon as they too might learn to welcome nature. Actually they have learned, for they do allow nature to beckon upon them whether that of the land, plants...birds. But the binocular I bring to them as an offering of my visit, will allow a 3D or a 'birds-eye' view of just that; birds. 

So a walk in the park....of nature and things....now has new definition... Lying while Birding:

Yes       Yes
        I see it
so they won't keep telling you
           where it is.
----Naomi Shihab Nye---