Made in Australia: Part 2

It could be that Jeb has never woken after that moment; Rosetta may still be in a dreamy repose. The voyage continues and it is perfectly possible that they travel in a connected dream through natural perfection. The Mother lets down her hair and continues to show what gems are woven into her flowing locks.

Birds the size of a man and some the size of his hand come close enough to speak with. They are calm-blues and passionate-reds. Forests begin as scattered bushes and gather into dense walls of growth. Palms are sprawling fans catering to royalty and climbing vines escort rain drops gently to the forest floor. The tree gatherings, as wealthy as gold, are like a green endless sky.

There is a log across the path, with a teasing tongue. Of course it is a python, thick and long protecting her nest. The value of the diamonds curling down her back are unmatched in the human world. This world that still holds unimaginable streams of water leading their flow to sacred pools. A hidden gully in the rocks lets float a single lily sprouting a purple blossom. The flower hovering above the water is as auspicious as the final star that still remains in the early daylight. 

It all rises into view, just as lost treasure always comes up from the sea. Even the sea rises from her own depths when The Mother whispers. Jeb lays on a board pulling water with his arms and the wave lifts him as it approaches. Their momentum becomes one and Jeb stands to greet the wave. He glides across the surface of the wall of water. It still builds and he looks up to its peak as a boy looks up listening to his father speak. The rush takes him, the rush takes it all.

They arrive at dawn. Precise, persistent, pure fields of prairie bush sprawl and climb into a low mountainous range. Pale yellow light builds upon the scene and the land becomes as welcoming as the yellow drops in Rosetta's eyes. On the other side of this sun's cycle the yellow doesn't return. In the evening a radiant tiger's eye turns the day's youthful land into a limited sanctuary of the earth. The duo walk into the dazzling light to find hopping. Kangaroos, wallabies and wallaroos graze and bounce everywhere. They enter the field from every direction; it is a ballet of marsupials. Jeb has never seen such a show before and it even delights Rosetta as if she too were a foreigner. Awe continues.

Out in the back of the carnival of hopping, two Kangaroos stand tall in confrontation. One leaps off his feet and and lunges forward, springing himself off his tail. He extends both legs in a furious kick. The boxing partner defends the thrust with jabs from his stubby arms. This act goes back and forth and then as if there was no tension at all the grappling stops and there is no evidence that peace was disturbed. The dusk dance continues all around.

As Jebediah witnesses the boxer's interactions he forgets he is watching animals. He mistakenly projects the troubles of the human mind onto the Roos. He wonders; do they like the adrenaline rush of the fight? Are they frightened of the violence? Does the winner walk away feeling superior and perhaps having flutters of guilt? Does the loser feel ashamed and regretful? However as stillness returns, Jeb becomes disillusioned from his own mind. He sees that the regret and sorrow are only creations of the human mind, of his mind, and they do not exist in nature. The simplicity of being a beast is apparent to Jeb as he understands that the animals experience desire, excitement and pain, but they do not have the tragically complex thoughts growing off these feelings. As the Kangaroos stand down from their powerful postures the risings of the moment evaporate and dissipate. The encounter produces an insignificant effect on the environment and no evil spills into the next instant. To prevent intruding further on the peaceful grazing, Rose and Jeb leave the field; or maybe they leave to follow the attraction humans have to the setting sun. Either way they now head towards the beach to worship the heart of The Mother.

They sit on the cape and appreciate the adaptation to its place in the universe as being so unique that it can been mistaken for a different world. And with the going down of the sun the stage is set for the silhouettes of the sea to perform. The creatures of this place pop up out of the water as puppets drop from the rafters. Triangle fins run in waving lines through the amber reflections; a feeding frenzy brings fish twitching above the water in fright. Spouting streams of mist spray into illumination. Rolling arches from giants give partial form to the blowhole show. The incomplete secrets of the ocean reveal themselves, but when the eye (another world all together)  gets a glimpse of what is beyond it finds an infinite number of mysteries that are yet to be discovered.

The following morning, with snorkel mask and fins, Rosetta and Jebediah enter the water. From the shore the shallows seem like empty space. From inside it is apparent that they actually support many lives from a deep space. Coral clusters of poison-blue stick and stack like a pile of watery jacks. Others look like hundreds of violet brains and show the immense intelligence of it all. Further there is brilliant green-and-miniature Himalayan mountains. There are countless fish here as there are countless prayers repeated there. Rosetta sees an octopus defending its home with a swipe of the tentacle.She has a good eye for seeing the sea and Jeb hears her calling his name above the surface.  He looks towards the voice and sees her arm pointing through the water at a large sea turtle flapping its wings with a grace only found in this dimension. Jeb dives to see its face as one would when meeting someone new that they know they'll be spending much time with. The ancients used to think that the earth was a plate on the back of a turtle propelling through the universe. Jebediah wanted to rest on this shell and be carried away through the timeless space of the under-water.

In the infancy of another day Jeb sees the full-moon at dawn, a gold coin emitting reflected warmth into the brisk morning. He looks into a mirror showing the horizon at sunset half the globe away. He stares into the reflected eyes of those watching the spherical furnace lay down across the Americas.
Rose joins him and together they watch the sun and the moon trade places in the sky.

When experiencing things from awe, the memories remain in the compartment of the mind that has no patterns and nothing to relate with. These unique happenings bubble up in our backward looking thoughts in a way that makes us ponder if they ever actually occurred. This mystifying phenomenon gives Jebediah the continued impression that all of it is heavenly.

...Catch the final part soon and WATCH OUT!!!