Winter is finally upon us! And I cannot express enough how happy I am.
Lately I have been watching a lot of short films and vlogs on youtube of people going on adventures and living these beautiful lives, surrounded by nature and quiet moments. I found myself longing for a life like that and saying things like "when I get married I want my life to be like that", "that is my ideal lifestyle" or "I wish I could make things like that" etc., when my mum pointed out that in a way, my life is almost exactly like that already. And she's right - I do make an effort to take joy in the small, quiet moments, I try and go on adventures as often as possible and I try to live as creatively as I can (while in the confines of studying for exams). I guess this post is in conjunction (or almost in contradiction) to my previous post, as I am coming to realise that I am living a life that I am mostly content with and that things will change with time, and some times I won't be able to create or go on adventures as much as I would like to - but it's still something that happens and is a massive part of my life. No matter how busy I become.
Yesterday (the second official day of winter), was one of those days - a day full of beautiful, emotion filled moments. There were times where I had to stop and remind myself that "this is real life" and not some independent film about young adulthood or something of that sort.
It started out with me having an urge to film something and to go somewhere away from the hustle an bustle of life (and study). Thankfully, two wonderful, also adventure loving friends: Adam and Lesley agreed to come with me on this fleeting adventure idea. So we drove up to the Gold Coast hinterlands, heading to Purling Brook Falls. With ideas for a video in mind I became excited as we approached the park, when all of a sudden we were greeted with police tape and a crowd of confused adventure seekers. After parking the car and asking around, we found out some very saddening news. Because of the incident that had occurred, the falls (and the rest of the national park) were off limits, so we rugged up and decided to explore the surrounding area and have a picnic in an empty lot, near a running stream.
We ate delicious homemade sandwiches, took photos of each other, waded through long grass, laughed at geese noises in the distance, collected fallen leaves as keep-sakes and ran around in the sunshine to warm our bodies. All of this excitement made me so, incredibly happy and Lesley, while giving me a hug in the sunshine remarked "you must be excited, your heart is beating super fast!". It made me realise that these beautiful moments truly do affect me and energise my entire body.
This was just the start of what was beginning to be a beautiful day. From here, we drove away with no idea what adventure to pursue next (except the one of finding fuel for the car).
After flipping a coin we decided to continue driving south until we hit the beach. And thank goodness we ended up there! - because we got to experience one of the most beautiful sunsets and moon rises ever. We stood together on the sand, in the cold wind, trying not to get out shoes wet and marvelling at the beauty the was stretched before us.
Once the sunset colours dimmed and the moon brightened, we went on the hunt for food and ended up at a beautiful (and warm) pizzeria Justin Lane, where we filled our bellies with incredibly delicious zucchini and feta pizza and reminisced over everything that had happened.
Meandering back to the car, we all felt that this was the perfect end to our unplanned, adventure filled day.
It's funny how you can have a plan of how your day will turn out and some times this plan is exactly how the day will be, but other times it may be completely different. Better even. Yesterday was one of those days.
Oh! Also, I made a short film of some of the beautiful moments we had during our adventure. I hope you enjoy it.
