Precious Child
‘Alexander Hayes with Kamahli Jae’
If only we had a magic wand that we could wave and change things in ways that would allow the harder shifts and changes in our lives to just go away.
Yet, what would we be if those learning curves, those experiences that forge us were to go? Would we be any better off? Happier?
I reckon we are forged by what we are in the present moment, that the past is a powerful story to be proud of and to tell it ... no matter how murky or hard it might seem. There is no future ... only what we have now and what we know. To learn to accept it as it is and to celebrate every last bit of it.
To step up and tell our story, point to the amazing things we have achieved. Pay homage to those fallen, atone for those mistakes we made and in making them forgiving not only others but ourselves for having made them.
Becoming a Father, in making a choice to support a young woman in her own life's choice, despite the pleas of other adults on the contrary ... in walking forward into life with no parenting skills whatsoever, in learning, in living, in loving.
Bankstown ... Berala to exact was a time of building a home from nothing, collecting things that were thrown out and building things into a comfortable nest. Playing cards together we realised it was time to head to the hospital.
The long labour. The anguish.
The joy. The absolute wonderment, joy and incredible gift that children are from the moment of their conception, through utero, childbirth, as they suckle, crawl, stretch, grow and gracefully become women and men. I am blessed. I am blessed.
Working night shift at Pickfords Records Management, at Telcom Lakemba, at Suzanne Grae at ....I cant remember now how many places ... we survived and we grew well together. College over we decided to reconnect with Family members who for the better part were coming to their own realisation that despite it all we were a family unit of our own.
The roar of Sydney, the bustle of life had us pack our boxes. We headed west again. This time the tardis of fate would have more in store than I'd ever imagined. I felt lines etch themselves in the sides of my eyes for the first time. I bit my tongue and held on.
Time to go back west, to Perth, Western Australia and face the music.
