Happy to be in the bushy outskirts of Sydney.
I spent a great deal of my child - and adulthood life in the Netherlands.
In the Netherlands everything is outlined and shaped by humans, even nature. Nature consists of just patches of planted forest in between cities and farmland. I've tried to fool myself in many Dutch forest. Imagining to be surrounded by endless space. But the attempt was always polluted to one or more senses by unwanted mechanical sounds, bad smells or visual elements disturbing the horizon.
Moving from the overcrowded country of the Netherlands to the vast continent of Australia has brought me a similar change as the gold fish that is released from it's little fish bowl into a lake. It adjusts to the size of it's surrounding.
I have always been looking for space in my adult life. Empty space to discover and solitude to enjoy. The knowledge that one is travelling alone and will continue to do so for another 100 km was mind boggling when I first came to the Sydney region. The sense of vastness, of unlimited space one could get by just standing in the bush. You could just leave the metropolitan area and travel endlessly through vast mountain ranges covered in bushland or coast lines with beaches that always seemed empty compared to European beaches. Even on hot summer days Bondi Beach seems to have a similar amount of guests as a rainy day on a beach in the Netherlands.
There is an additional aspect that comes with this sense of space. The existence of forgotten land. I don't like the phrase 'waste land'. It is not wasted at all just because there is no economic value connected to it. To me this is 'essential space'. Essential to function as a balanced human being and to experience the world we live in as a providing space to whatever we want to do and be. This fortune that the Australian continent bears has been used as such by it's indigenous inhabitants for many centuries. Sad enough white Australians often do not realise and do not know how to judge the richness they have surrounding them.
Reflections
| 
