The Little City

I think there comes a time where you realise you don't want to settle. Settle for second best, for hit and miss, for anything that doesn't quite feel right. Whilst I like to balance the great unknown and chance with comfortability, I feel like if there is an inch of unhappiness that comes from it then you're better off sorting out something else.

For me, after travelling alone, living alone, and breathing alone, I find it hard to have people constantly around me. The busyness of work, university and home life is encouraging but also tiring. I painted a picture in my mind a while ago of a place where I could go and no one could get to me. Only nature. 

Living right smack bang in the middle of this little city, this has been both possible and impossible at times. The wind blows through it politely; there is no force or hustle. It's as if it is saying "no, I insist, after you", tipping its top hat with the sincerest regards. I'm dragged along unassumingly, with a dumb grin on my face whenever I turn right off Darby onto King and along past the new businesses that have opened up over the last year. Saluna beckons afternoon siestas and the city opens itself up in the most incredible ways at early hours of the morning. Like yesterday morning, for instance.

I left the house at 5:30am and raced the sun to the horizon. I think living on the East Coast of Australia is a particularly special experience - you are one of the first people to see the sun rise on a new day. Think about it: other countries are behind us. For us, the sun is unrecycled, fresh, new, vibrant and an untapped source of goodness for the soul. And we're lucky enough to be one of the countries that will get to see it first on a brand new day. 

Newcastle at sunrise is spectacular. You see the nocturnally inclined go about their work silently and humbly and you get to experience the silhouettes and shadows of the city's make up. Boats, heck ships, come and go, and the fiery hues of the sun's first moments breach Nobby's carpark, with little black silhouettes dancing slowly as they wriggle into wetsuits, walk their dog or fall out of their camper vans to give praise to a new day.

I am blessed to live here.