"I am from ..."

This last weekend I participated in a men's retreat with the church I've recently been attending.  The leader has us think through the value of our identity and where we find it.  To help us reflect we are given a poetic template called "I am from'.

Here is what I put together:

I am from the baling press.

From wool and wheat.

I am from the blue weatherboard along the hidden dirt track - green lino; bright blue carpet; floorboards that creak.

I am from 

wattle draped over the fence of the front paddock; 

redgum punctuating the landscape from the kitchen window; 

Mosquito Creek - treacherous after a rain.

I am from Saturday football and ‘bee-bup-a-loo-la’.

From Johnson and Philbey.

I’m from the frustrated sheep days and the fun lounge room wrestles.

From ‘we’ll always support you’ and ‘go for it’.

I’m from Sunday tradition, determined simple faith. 

I’m from Parilla and Tam O’Shanter. 

Roast lamb, mashed potato.

From the clearing sale and miraculous move to the city.

The unspoken disappointment.

Portrait of mullets and quilted floral jackets; World War Two memorabilia; obscure inclusion in the first SA fleet of European settlement.

Humble stories of ‘almost success’ and timeless joy.