When I was twenty, with six weeks left to finish my acting degree, a family friend of my sister’s paid for me to escort their elderly mother to their home in Switzerland. Imagine, a fully paid for trip to Switzerland. I was supposed to stay with them for a week then come home. I ended up staying for six and remember thinking “That’s it. That’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to finish uni and travel the world for the rest of my life.” I even tried to not finish uni and sent a fax home to my parents via my sister to tell them that infact, I wasn’t coming home, I was going to stay here! My sister (who arranged the whole thing) would have none of it and told me to come home, which I did, only to find out years later (after thinking about the parallel life that I could have lived) that I couldn’t have legally stayed anyway.
A few years after that I happened to be the only person around as the elderly woman I’d escorted to Switzerland passed away. I sat with her through the night. When I went home to have a shower and then return, no sooner had I entered my home than the retirement village rang to say she’d gone. Not much later her family in Switzerland wanted to pay for me to come to Switzerland again as a kind gesture of their gratitude. But I was heading over to San Francisco to do a course, so they paid for that instead. When I finished the course, I had returned to Australia then flown back to the States again (chasing a guy), they still wanted me to come to Europe. But I had had enough, the guy told me he’d found another girl, I had no purpose being there and it was time to go home. The travel was pointless. And I realised then that if I was going to travel again it needed to be for a purpose.
When I met Rob, we went to Nepal for a holiday (we didn’t have any money, we just put it on our credit card!) - but we went to help out a children’s orphanage. At the time I was suffering from some self-inflicted pity and it was a good wake up call. In fact, that trip not only healed that self-pity and depression, but also lead to us funding and re-establishing a childcare centre in Nepal that needed much help. We continued to fund them until we moved here, to Switzerland two years ago and they are now well and truly on their feet.
In 2007 Rob and I once again travelled with a purpose, this time with a puppet show - we toured to Sydney, around Queensland and to New Zealand. And then in 2008 I got a grant to attend an international children’s entertainers conference in Tennessee. And then in 2009 and 2010 we kept travelling, touring our own anti-bullying show throughout most of Queensland. They were wonderful years with lots of fun, adventure and laughter.
Which brings us now to Switzerland. Well, it too has been an adventure, with lots of travel. I can say we’ve been to Milan, London, Wales, Barcelona, Ireland, Rome, Cinque Terra, Provence, Arles, Avignon, Tuscany, Salzburg, Munich, Colmar, Alsace, Verbier, Crans Montana, Evian, Geneva, Paris etc. etc. etc. But what I’m really learning now is what’s most important to me. It’s been a wonderful adventure and I thank God every day for it. I have LOVED it!
A few weeks before we came over here, I was sitting in my red velvet tub lounge chair and I’d been praying. I’d been praying for a friend who was having difficulties and as I opened up my email on that chair, I read her letter, thanking me for my help because now everything was fine and she was doing well and how much my prayer had helped her. I felt such utter and complete satisfaction and then heard the words “There’s nothing more satisfying than this.” I think God was telling me that to keep it all in perspective, so that when I got here (to Switzerland), I would remember that it’s loving each other, it’s helping, it’s doing the right thing that will bring satisfaction. And I’ve needed that here - I’ve needed that reminder in a society so obsessed with things. I’ve needed that reminder to point me once again in the direction that’s right for me, which usually always is never the direction the world tells me I should be going on.
This morning I called my dad on Skype. I love my almostly weekly chats with him. And this morning amongst other things, he said to me “There’s only one thing that’s the most important thing in the world you know.” “I know” I said. And as if to make sure I’d got the point he asked me like a school examiner would “What is it?”. “Love”, I said. “That’s right, Love. Love. It can solve all the problems in the world. If we’d only love.” So that’s what I’m coming home to do. To love. To love better. To love more. To love. And I think who cares how much of the world you’ve seen, who cares how much money you have who cares what you own or who you know or what you do if you don’t love. None of that matters. The only thing that matters is Love. I’m coming home to Love!
