Mississippi Soul - Abandoned, Part 3
After 5 months of intense 24/7 time with the 5 other members of my family - due to COVID Pandemic restrictions - I was in need of some alone time. As I drove in solace through the vast, fertile land that is the Mississippi Delta, listening to Alannah Myles ‘Black Velvet’ – ‘with that slow Southern style’, I felt a magnetism to a place that I had heard about my whole life - but really knew little about. Much like the Bermuda Triangle, I wondered, once here, would I ever leave - not physically, but my soul? As I neared the Delta town of Greenwood, I was expecting what Charley Pride sings about in his song ‘Mississippi Cotton Picking Delta Town’ - ‘one dusty street, you walk up and down, and nothing much to see but a starving town’; but instead, I just felt an overwhelming sense of suction – like I was being drawn into a new world. But rather than aliens and strange lands, this world was embellished with God, love, fertility, music, creativity, and a dark past. Its mysteries drew me into its web and captured me. An alluvial, gold bearing, triangular land - what secrets would I discover on my 2 day escape from reality?
Midsummer Break
I’m nearly six months into this blogging thing – who would have thought! It strikes me that it could be a good time to find out what you would like to read and learn about. I’ve never asked - but then again - when I started this, I never knew what ‘this’ really was. It’s just been a space where I could a) share photographs I’ve been taking, and b) write about some of the observations and emotions of an Australian living in Memphis with my family. It’s also been a space where I could write about some of my ‘past’ emotions – perhaps too much information for some - but it’s felt quite liberating and cathartic, and I think it helps others to process their own emotions, past and present (or so I’ve been told). In this briefer post, I’m summarising who ‘you’ are – the people that have been reading my blog, I’m sharing some thoughts on where I’m at with blogging, I’m updating you on where my family is at, I’m providing insight to some recent US experiences, and I question you to think about what you’d like from me in the future regarding this blog – is there something about the US or Australia that you would like to ask? I probably can’t answer it personally, but I’m certainly enjoying researching, learning and sharing my posts, and I hope you might be too. If you’re not, then I’d love to know that too, as this process is one big learning experiment for me…
COVID19 - A U.S. Perspective
When you make the decision to move to another country with your family, ‘Pandemic’ is not something that we added to the list of considerations! But here we are, along with everyone else, trying to sort through the truths, the fear, the panic, and the meaning behind it all... Some observations from an Australian family living in the US, and what we can learn from our Grandparents era.