Survivor

We've had a weekend away. Mum, my daughters and I, looking around several open gardens in the Adelaide Hills. 

It was awesome. I have come home with so much inspiration and vigour for my garden. I spent all day Monday out in it, mowing, weeding, rearranging and cleaning up. Tuesday too.

We'd been listening to the radio mostly, in the car, but on the way home Mum put on one of her CDs, one of those 'party' or BBQ compilations. The words 'Survivor - Eye of the tiger', came up on the digital screen on the stereo. I'd had the #fmsphotoaday challenge in my mind - fave word. 

There were several that came to mind. Home, happiness, family. As soon as I saw that word, Survivor, it felt right. It sat.

I wasn't quick enough to take the photo, Mum turned the stereo off,  she has a habit of turning the stereo off when she is on a talking roll. I zoned her out though, thinking about missing that photo. I didn't want to let that word go.

We are all surviving something, or desperately trying. Cancer, mental illness, the god forsaken witching hour, peak hour traffic. That annoying nosy woman in the street,  who asks all the obvious nosy questions, because she can't help herself but know your business so she has something to talk about to other people. Or the kicker, that makes your problems seem insignificant - the family desperately escaping across borders. Escaping their war torn homeland, with only the clothes on their back and a few bottles of water. Hiding wherever they can, not sure if they will make it through the night, without being discovered. The elderly, women, children.

The word 'survivor' means there is hope. It means that there is a skerrick of a possibility, that surviving is not impossible. 

I can only hope, with my head buried in the sand mostly, because the truth is too hard to bear, that there be many who can call themselves 'survivors'. That they will have courageous stories to share. Fabulous stories of hope. This is my wish.