Another vigil

So when the miners were underground in Tasmania for ten days or whatever it was, I remember thinking about them as I went about my daily life. I even blogged about it.

All the time they were down there, I was up here doing my normal stuff. Going to the toilet, eating, snuggling into bed, waking and sleeping. Working.

And then there was the other vigil, the waiting for Princess to come back from America. Twenty-six days of hell.

I find myself in a similar situation now. Princess went to camp at 7am on Thursday morning.
It was dry but the deluge was coming. They are west of Melbourne, near the coast and under canvas for seven nights, eight days. Apparently there is a house on the property that I GUESS the teachers will take them to if say, they are completely washed out and having to wring the water out of sleeping bags and dodge falling tree branches?

There is no contact with them until Thursday when they get their phones given back on the bus home, and while I sent her off with the most sublimely packed bag with nothing forgotten, lots of warm stuff in the correct fibres, even hiking boots and thicko socks and as much stroggin* as she could carry, I still find it difficult to push away the thought that while I am snug and safe my babe is lost in the woods somewhere.

Last night, in bed, with my hot water bottle against my stomach, the wind and rain lashing the window, how could I settle down and sleep? We've been to a party, had Father's Day breakfast, slept in clean linen, worked, shopped, read, watched Geelong lose narrowly (not bitter, not bitter) and all the while she is somewhere I can't imagine, can't visualise, possibly up to her ears in mud.

So glad to see the sun today, but the papers are telling me there's worse to come? Cars have been pushed off precipices on the ski mountains, people are being evacuated from flooded towns, and the only thing that is keeping me sane is that she is not in a danger area and she is with professionals. But the next few days will still be long ones.

And next Saturday we leave for Turkey. Ahhhhh.






* hiking snacks, like chocolate, nuts etc. High energy, high protein.