6. Journeyman

Leading with my chin, I ventured, “What a place to spend Eternity!” Spread out before us was nature at its most triumphant. Breakers from the Pacific hustled upon the rocks below, as the weak sun struggled to disperse the banks of cloud encroaching the Sydney basin from the south-west.

The twinkle in those genial eyes deepened. He was balanced on the edge of the bench , sweating profusely from that cherubic Buddha-like body. Catching his breath, he responded, “That is just the body, the vessel for this journey”. He came to this land from Vietnam nearly forty years ago, first to Melbourne, then Armidale, before perching on this eastern rim of the city.

The Buddhist philosophy tumbled out of him (“Our life force has departed so it does not matter where the body rests”) as we paid homage to the warmth of the sun with the energy of our interaction.