Reflecting

I've been on the road for a week tomorrow. It feels longer.

It's also 2 weeks since my dad died. That feels even longer back. A part of me is still surprised by how quickly I did everything and almost feels a tad guilty. But this opportunity is giving me so much time to think, feel and process.

Plus I think I needed some dry karoo heat to sink into my bone narrow and warm me up on the inside. My winter felt really long.

The karoo is a mysterious place. It takes a certain kind of hardiness in plants and animals to survive here. I'm very aware of being an observer here and while walking through the quiet Matjiesfontein on my own, I wondered how my fellow Scot and founder of the town, John Logan, convinced the 'dignitaries' to spend time in the area with it's extreme temperatures and the contrasts. The Karoo requires a strength of human that I know I don't possess but I do admire it, whatever it is. The people are hospitable but a touch guarded and I don't blame them. So many people are just traveling through.

Today I am in Laingsburg. A town that I connected very strongly with in 2011. It seems like the tragedy of the flood is a real distant memory now being over 40 years later. The scars are healing. The youngsters on the streets unaffected by the horror of the once in a thousand years flood. A generation carrying their own wounds of unemployment, fears and despair.

This sounds gloomy. I'm not gloomy at all, but feeling really appreciative of being in this unique space on the planet. Tomorrow I go to inspect other planets at the SALT observatory in Sutherland. Really looking forward to seeing the stars up close. Last night I saw a shooting star and the Milky Way was showing off. I liked it.