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Writer's pictureRichard Lipscombe

My birth nation is burning, again....


Newminimalism promotes *originality *discipline *creativity *loyalty *less fluff





Ten years ago my home in Australia was surrounded by bush fires. The sky had an orange glow [see photo]. Stay-or-go was the prescient thought in my mind. Outside the heat was debilitating. It was like living inside a raging furnace. Every minute brought a whole new set of challenges. Every hour sucked more oxygen out of the air. Sleep did not come. Peace of mind was nowhere to be found. We were living in a war zone in which the environment was raging with targeted hostility toward me and mine.


Ten years earlier there was no way to get home as the freeway out of Sydney was cut by bushfires for three days. When I did get home there were people in temporary shelters in the local parks and in every public space where families could set up camp. The constant noise of choppers was like something out of a war movie. The thick black smoke brought all of us respiration and eye sight issues. The concept of dystopia became a stark reality for hundreds upon hundreds of Australians.


Again today the fires have returned to ravage a sunburnt country and this time more Australians than before are left helpless in the face of a raging inferno. But brave men and women throughout the nation are on the frontline to fight back against the flames just as they have always been in the past. These fires like, those before them, will eventually die away but the Australian people will not forget the minutes that turned into hours that turned in weeks and then into months as they faced the harsh reality that nature can be cruel.


Richard

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