If I complain, somebody please slap me

A recent UN study declared that Norway was the country with the best quality of life, followed by Australia and then New Zealand.


I believe it’s true – that life in Australia is very special.  Take a regular day for me:  I wake up and I can hear birds and the waves of the ocean.  This is the view that greets me as I draw the blinds:

 
After a yummie breakfast, I walk past my local pool, and many dog creatures with waggy tails and cheerful expressions, along the water’s edge to catch the ferry-happy-day to work.

Walk along the water's edge

Water at Manly wharf

View from the ferry

The ferry takes about half an hour, and sometimes I see a whale or some dolphins on the journey that takes us into… Circular Quay:

Coming into Circular Quay

Where did the city go??

Ferry docked at Circular Quay

From Circular Quay, it is a 20 minute walk to my office.  I walk by some of Sydney’s oldest buildings, up past the State Library and through the Domain.  There is a sign in the Domain that says:  “Please walk on the grass.  We also invite you to hug the trees, picnic on the grass and talk to the birds.”  Very good advice…  Mind you, if someone were to do too much hugging of trees and talking to birds in the Domain, passers by might get the heebie-jeebies and contact “the authorities.”  So I restrain myself, somewhat.

After work, I do the trip back again at sundown:

View of North Sydney from evening ferry

Manly wharf at sundown

Walk back past my local pool

If I get home after dark I can see tiny penguin creatures waddling on the sand by the water in Manly, but I can’t take a photo because flash photography gives them the heebie-jeebsters. 

It is amazing to think that we can be born anywhere, but that I am one of a small number of the human population to be born in Australia.  What are the odds of being so lucky?! 

There is still great suffering here, unfortunately, as that is the human condition at times – illness, homelessness, heartbreak...  But there is much to be grateful for.