A Buskers Festival

During my travels in Australia I had a few unique experiences. One of them was attending a Buskers Festival.

The sign said “A Buskers Festival” – in the town of Morte Lake. My first thought was “doesn’t Morte mean something to do with death?” and I was unsure if this was indeed a festival or a gathering of evil forces. Either way it was something we decided we needed to attend. We drove for hours then parked our car on a grassy knoll near a huge wooden fence. The smells of delicious meats, cheeses and delectable desserts, the sounds of fiddles, banjos, drums and instruments we couldn’t name rushed at us as we opened our car doors to step into the Busker Festival World. We strolled through the festival and immediately felt like we were part of a huge family. Everyone greeted us, everyone smiled, and no one was rushed or impatient. The entire air was buzzing with the most intense wonderful feeling. We saw unicyclers, singers, dancers, comedians and a fire eater! We watched a group of carnies dance the Chicken Dance while selling their wares. We walked through mountains of clothing, jewelry, pottery and various crafts of the vendors. It was a day of celebration, although I don’t believe we ever found out exactly what was being celebrated, it was obvious that it was something important. When we left there it was sad. Driving off to the next adventure was somewhat quiet for a few hours - which was nice in a way. We were headed off to see the fairy penquins! Its a real spectator sport with bleachers on the beach and everything! We sat for what seemed like a few hours - but then I started seeing little miniature black dots being rolled over and over by the waves crashing into Phillips Island. We were there with hundreds of people to witness the little fairy penguins coming home after being out to sea looking for food. I was struck by the perseverance of these tiny creatures that would put any athlete to shame. No matter how many times they were washed back out to sea, they kept coming toward shore, to their homes and their babies.

Watching these miniature creatures in tuxedos made me feel inadequate in my attempts at being something or someone in my life. Their determination awoke in me a desire and determination to take on my own dreams and goals. Walking next to them as they hurried toward their burrows, I felt in awe; they totally ignored all the humans around them and performed the tasks at hand. Their instinct was to get home and take care of their wee ones; the intruders at hand would have to wait. I could hear the song in my head “hi ho hi ho”…. thinking of the dwarfs in that fairy tale. Those fairy penguins were a source of delight for everyone who watched them that evening. Thinking about those penquins has got me focused again on my task at hand which is to build a business to live my dreams! Watch out world..... :)