Hola spunky monkies,

It’s less than two weeks before we move home. I know right? TWO WEEKS? How did that come around so quick? Oh, I remember the days when I was counting down from twelve weeks.

On ze weekend we had our Great Big Cupcake Going Away Extravaganza. Wherein we invited co-workers and friends and all their partners, kidlings, mamas and sisters to our place for a cupcake morning tea.

And I didn’t really think that one through – considering we only have one large room in our house that isn’t totally taken out with boxes – this one was only a quarter filled. And it was not looking Home Beautiful by any standards.

But we had oodles of red cupcakes and strawberries to make up for it. And we just kept adding chairs and chairs as more people came. And it ended up being this wild, crazy, noisy mess of love and giggles and sharing. There were kids drawing Godzilla in the kitchen, and half-licked cupcakes wafting around, and Starry was passed around to every person in the room for cuddles, loved every minute of it and then promptly fell asleep in her daddy’s arms, and then her Great-Aunt’s arms.

Perfection.

There were two cards given to me that made me cry that day.

One, from my dear friend Lile, who has been my boss, my Virgoian counterpart and cubicle buddy for seven years.

Your dream has come true. Your heart was always in Proserpine and now you get to finally move back home.

Yes. Yes Yes Yes. Was it always plain to see where my heart belonged?

I’m so grateful for friends who saw that, and now celebrate our dream come true.

And the other, from another Virgoian sweetheart, Mel. She mentored me through the maze of cubicle land and the public service. She rejoices in my hippyness, even though she’s not one (unless you’re talking about the SECRET TIE DYE WEARING HIPPY FAIRY hiding inside her. IT IS THERE, no matter how much she protesteth!)

A week after I told Mel we were moving home, her work offered voluntary redundancies.

And she thought:

Bugger, if Leonie can go and leave cubicle land, and do exactly what she loves, and move wherever she likes… SO CAN I.

So she quit. And she’s going back to university to become a high school teacher.

She’s doing her great big dream. And my heart is huge and wide and full. The thought of Mel being a high school teacher gives me the good kind of shivers. She’s going to be remarkable. She’s going to touch lives, people. She’s going to do what she was born to do.

And now I’m totally tearing up.

It reminded me that we can never really know just how much our own leaps of faith and courage can affect others.

Ahhh… happy, happy days.

Thank you beautiful people.

You have made Canberra.

Me and Starry have been having all day slumber parties since then, in an effort to heal up my mastitis. Ahhhhhh, rest…. that medicine I need to keep learning and taking.

So in honour of adventures to come… I want to share with you the 20 Things I’m Loving About Moving HOME!

1. Mama Ocean. The beaches. The beach we fell in love at, and the beach Chris asked me to marry him at. The beaches that are filled with large rocks. The beaches that are white soft sand. The 70+ islands off the coast. The Great Barrier Reef. The tropical reef just off Horseshoe Bay that me and Chris would snorkel out too.

Yus, there is a kind of magical, mermaidy bliss to moving back to tropical paradise.

2. My sweet, crazy, loving Mama & Daddy.

The wild bushman centaur farmer and his blonde city girl.

I often wondered what these two had in common, but now I realise…

Both of them are utterly in love with children. Their kids are their biggest passion in life. They think children are the most wonderful blessings on earth.

They have taught me well.

And I’m so looking forward to Starry having her crazy-in-love-with-her grandparents just down the road.

3. Our new old home. The 100 year old cottage that we will make our own.

I keep picturing it, thinking of the long lunches we’ll have on the enclosed verandah, where I’ll set up a sweet little play area for Starry, what I’ll cook in the kitchen, the gardens we’ll grow in the backyard…

4. Family Days.

The days where my whole clan comes together on my parent’s farm for food and laughter and games and silliness.

Above is me with requisite fairy wings, my mum’s first husby {and my brother’s dad} and my big sis. Not pictured are my nieces and nephew, grandmama, great aunt, brother, sissy-in-law, dad, mama and sisters. Plus whoever else is added on that day. There are always add-ons. We love extended families that are so extended they go out of the bounds of lineage.

5. No more Christmases via Skype!

I’ve missed countless birthdays, Easters and Christmases since we moved across the other side of the country nine years ago.

NO MORE! HURRAH!

6. Driving that beautiful stretch of road between our cottage in town to my parent’s farm (and Crystalbrook Retreat).

I’ve driven that road so many times since birth that its curves course through me, as familiar as my own hand.

The lush green canefields, the turquoise sky, the blue mountains…

7. My nephew. (and my two nieces!)

Drawing trucks with them on the concrete.

8. Good morning time.

Yars, I think I’ll just wake up, take my sippy cup out to the yard, ride a rocking horse, and hang with the miniature pony.

Coz that’s what we all do.

9. Lake Proserpine. Just up the road. Hanging out on the grass watching the sunsets over the water.

See that pointy mountain on the far right?

Her name is Roma Peak. She’s white and is the solidified core of a volcano!

10. My gran. It’s her 93rd birthday next week.

She puts the GRAND in Grandmother.

She also puts the RIDICULOUSLY DIVINE AND GORGEOUS AND SASSY in it too.

I’m so blessed to be her granddaughter.

(If this photo had sound, it would be of her shrieking Ride’em cowgirl! with peels of laughter)

11. Crystalbrook Retreat.

Ahhhh, home.

We’ll be building our sanctuary out here in the next couple of years.

Green fields and mountain ranges of forest and birds and creeks and stones.

I’m looking forward to walking our crystal labyrinth there again.

Activating our crystal grid again.

And creating a medicine wheel.

And finding all the energy vortexes there.

And working with the energy of the land and the nature spirits.

And walking it, over and over.

It’s my holy land.

One day soon, I’ll be holding retreats there. And having teachers from all over the world there.

And have people living there in beautiful spiritual community.

Crystalbrook Retreat is my big dream come true.

12. My big brother Brett.

My friend Deb said to me once…

When I look in your brother’s eyes, I see Jesus.

And I know just what she means.

My brother is the apple of my eye. I adore adore adore him.

13. My beautiful sissy in law Sharne.

My brother’s gorgeous wife. She is just so beautiful inside and out.

I’m so grateful they found each other and fell in love.

I’m so grateful that we are going to be living near each other.

That we’ll have mama’s groups together.

That I’ll get to know her even more.

So, so, so blessed.

(And that I’ll get to meet the beautiful little Cancerian goddess that was still in her mama’s tummy last time I saw her!)

14. Ridiculously large bonfires. And the long nights talking around them.

15. When scenes like this are just normal.

Except usually there is more adult peoples in the tree as well.

I’ve been climbing this tree since I was tiny.

It’s bigger now, and so am I.

But still, it begs to be climbed.

16. My beautiful big sister.

Who is moving home from England the same week as us.

My Capricornian twin.

We are going to laugh stupidly and make big plans.

And sell cupcakes at markets.

Oh yes, we must.

17. I’ve already talked about the sunsets. But REALLY. Sunsets like the equivalent of a year’s worth of meditation to the soul. Amen.

18. Being close to this crazy mob again.

My family, my tribe.

19. Two words people:

TROPICAL PARADISE.

I look at this photo and I get teary, and my whole heart sings with:

Home, home, home.

20. Crappy photo, but that’s not the point.

Last time we were home, my Dad announces we need to go for a special drive.

So me and mama and sis and the doggy and our cousins jumped in the cars and followed him out up to the back paddock.

He’d decided to build a bonfire for us…

out of a fallen tree.

That was 30 metres long.

So we had a 30 metre long bonfire out there under the stars and the eucalypt trees beside the mountain.

And we took silly Cheese photos, and we made the fire even bigger, and my cousin turned into a hippy and decided to spot all the fire fairies.

(Evidence 1 of Cheese photos)

(Evidence 2 of Zorro Fire Fairy!)

And it was simple and perfect and earthy and holy.

And it’s the reason we are moving home.

I want to live like that again.

And I want Starry to know what it’s like to grow up like that too.

So that’s what we are doing.

I can’t say that I know all the answers. That I know if it will always be easy. That we know exactly how things will work out. Yes, we are making a change. Yes, we are leaving our safe little home and our comfortable little lifestyle here. Yes, there will be adjustments. Yes, family isn’t always easy peasy. Yes, in summer, it will be dang hot. Yes, Mr Hunky will be looking for new work. Yes, my beautiful goddess business will be supporting us. Yes, these are big big changes.

But I feel, deep in my bones, that this is the right way.

That this is the time, and this is the place to walk towards the life I want to lead.

To make big, beautiful, sweeping changes.

To know that whatever happens, we will be okay. We will work it out. We will make it loving and precious and true and good.

I believe in me. I believe in us. I believe in the redemptive power of going to the place you belong.

Hello, beautiful cliff.

Hello, Leap of Faith.

I love you, I love you, I love you,