Delta Covid Strain Settles in Australia

DELTA COVID strain jumps from area to area, person to person in Sydney Australia, continuing to spread to other capital cities and country towns. Our elected officials appear regularly daily on our television screens, our mobile devices, speaking through masks. The news remains grim. Stay indoors. Travel restrictions abound. Cases rise, a death happens thankfully to older citizens who had experienced a life journey. It is now 18 long months since most of the Australian population heard of and was exposed to the initial virus attack on our shores.

All my family members and each of my closer friends have a story to tell of disruption, disappointment, even a health reaction to one of the vaccines, learning to accept and cope with change. CHANGE – it is an essential part of life’s journeys yet is rarely mentioned as we walk, run, dance through our lives.

I have been blessed with finding my true passion in life – aviation, particularly flying hot air and gas balloons. It is a vocation, a sport that envelops CHANGE as a pilot navigates the sky, searching for different wind directions to change track to eventually find the final target – a sensible landing field or spot where the chase crew can drive to the balloon and basket for a easy retrieve or a target in competition. This has been my life for 46 years now. So yes I have learned to grow comfortable with CHANGE. But lately I am feeling a little lost. And not only me. I speak often with my family, friends, close contacts ranging in age from 20 to 83. Each person shares honestly with me they also are feeling lost. Lost in the uncertainty we are forced to live with daily.

My recent action to help me find my inner calm once more is to cut back on repetitive news broadcasts and to play my favourite music. Hopefully I will feel the urge to dance once more soon.

And along with around 300 others I wait to see if our National Ballooning Championship will go ahead August 28 in Northam, about an hour’s drive northeast of Perth Western Australia.

Written as a note for future years… Will update if I successfully visit Northam in 2021.