So when did my life journey really begin?  I have wondered on that many a time.  I could be tedious and go right back to my earliest memories of my life and the circumstances that helped shape me, but I won’t.  Primarily because the people, events and influences that contributed are like the seeds in a sunflower; far to numerous such that I am not sure that it would be helpful in explaining my yellow brick road!

Instead, I will begin at a time when I genuinely remember thinking I wanted something different; wanted to be different; wanted to go through life differently. I was about 13; I felt completely alien in my family and in the world around me.  I had none of the talents of my siblings; I was not athletic, nor artistic, nor was I gorgeous like my beautiful sisters.  Instead I was the odd one out, short by comparison, bowed legged, and a shadow that merely followed around behind my big brother! I remember one afternoon after school following some typical childhood bullying incident, being in tears and feeding the chooks for Mum, deciding that there was only one thing for it….I would do life differently somehow.  I didn’t quite know how or what exactly it might look like; but I do remember asking the universe to send me an angel to guide me and help me find that something unique.

Then while on summer holiday at the beach that same year, along came this cute, suntanned, beach kid with gorgeous brown eyes and a cheeky smile.  That chance meeting changed my life and set me on a journey that has continued, 30 years on, to be a wonderful and sometimes scary, surprise to me.  None of it has been what I had expected or even planned for.  Some might say I have just bumbled along from one thing to the next without any direction, but heck, I have had fun doing it.  I have so far had some amazing experiences; seen some breathtaking places, tasted a variety of wonderful foods from around the world, listened to the voices and music of countless peoples, and surrendered to cultures far and wide.

And I hope I am only part way along my road to Oz!