It’s a phrase a dear friend used when he and I stood on Long Point at Maria Island, on a day just like this.
Our respective families were not far from us, having fun, swimming, fishing, looking at life through a sea-lens. The day was perfection. He put his arm across my shoulder, and with his other arm, swept it grandly to indicate the Mercury Passage and Maria Island.
He grinned as if he was sharing a secret and said, ‘Where else in the world?’
One of the things I was most afraid of losing from my life after the vestibular ‘event’ that I suffered four months ago and for which I am still having treatment, was my time away in our boat.
As I move through the treatment, one of the maxims they expound is to ‘test your balance and your brain plasticity by doing all that you did before’…
For many tourists and weekenders, Maria Island is a great place to visit and observe. Looking from the mainland shore – “The island (could) seem one of those places … that belong to a life in which (one might) never take part.”― Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons
Sometimes it’s great to just leave research books, pages of writing and notes and the computer far behind and spend the day with family, just thinking of nothing in particular. Trust me, the muse was there. How could she not be with the beauty of the place? But she was as prepared to just ‘be’ as I was…
Saturday was Australia Day and we were meant to spend it on the water. That was the plan. But it showered and blew and so it was cancelled. But today…
The north corner of Chinamens Beach, Maria Island…
Communication; it takes two. Stay with me and I’ll explain.
Today we took the boat once again to Maria (pronounced Mar-eye-ah) Island. A glorious day, and where we chose to moor, so calm that one could barely tell where water ended and land began. 
The family left the boat and decided to walk along the coastal track to the lagoon and bay where we wished to swim. I had brought my kayak with me and decided that I would paddle round to the bay. Maria Island has snakes here and there and I figured I’d rather take my chances with the water than snakes as anyone who has read this blog knows I have a snake-phobia.
Occasionally, Sei Shonagon would veer into a more detailed journal entry instead of her sharp little vignettes. They could be four or five pages long and invited the reader deep into her life – details of speech, mannerisms and settings all wrapped up in her sometimes gentle, often acerbic point of view. This latest Pillow Book of Prudence will depart from the norm and journey into a longer journal entry in deference to Sei Shonagon.
