Hello From Afar 👋

Longing for belonging

Hellooooo 👋. It’s been a while, a really rather long while. But here I am, somewhat awkwardly breaking the ice of silence and waving warm greetings from Eswatini (if you haven’t heard of this tiny land locked country in Southern Africa - I don’t blame you!).

My first solo adventure - a hike up Sibebe rock, a three-billion-year-old volcanic slab and the second largest monolith in the world, after Australia’s Uluru.

I arrived last October, and it’s been quite the tumultuous ride ever since, but as the red dust begins to settle I find I have been too quiet for too long.

A full moon hike and camp at Malolotja Nature Reserve

If you’re wondering how I ended up here, I suspect, for the most part, it was a longing for belonging.

December wild flowers

It pulled me here to this place of red earth, where two generations of red haired women have walked before me, barefoot, on the red dirt.

Large wildcat paw print (I think?!?) - if it was a wild dog you’d most likely see their claw prints too.

My grandmother and aunt lived much of their lives on a farm here named ‘Hlegamanzi’ which translates as ‘laughing waters’ (or so I’ve been told) as the land is home to a spring.

Sunrise from my bedroom window at the farm before I moved to my new little home for now.

It’s a funny thing this longing for belonging, the tender itch that sets one off on (seemingly) new pathways that wind and curve in all too familiar patterns.

Far reaching views between granite boulders

What was is that Frost said in his poem? “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled …” Well, it turns out, metaphorically at least, I’ve taken this one before.

On my way down to a river swim to cool off!

“Our bodies know that they belong; it is our minds that make our lives so homeless” - John O’Donohue

Chasing waterfalls with my adopted family.

Recently, when I’ve adventured into the heart fo nature, and felt the mountains wrap around me in their supportive embrace, I have begun to understand it is the heart of our nature - this longing for belonging.

And I am learning that when I feel that tender itch, it’s so much more a call to remember that I belong to myself, to these steady mountains, and the long grasses that dances in the wind, than a call to set off searching, yet again.

My canine companions Dingo and Taffy who supply me with never ending supplies of snuggles

---

This poem landed in my inbox just over a week ago, I thought I’d share it just in case it moves you, as it did me.

The Well

---

Until next time.

Sending big heart,

C