One Christmas in Sydney - 1994

Before reading the story, click on the video immediately below and have it playing in the background as you read, slowly - Trust me!

Following a very busy week at work I had a comparatively long lie. Had the traditional Australian Christmas VB for breakfast while I sat out on my balcony overlooking Botany Bay and Sydney Airport, very beautiful in the early morning sunshine.

Tidied the flat and got the Christmas dinner on the go - Even in Oz despite the heat, I still liked the traditional (in our family) roast chicken with all the trimmings. While all that was on the go I phoned the family in Melbourne exchanged greetings and good wishes and chatted for a good while.

Had my dinner around three with a nice bottle of South Australian white and relaxed in front of the TV for a couple of hours, probably dozed off for a while.

As evening drew in I again sat out on the balcony - I was very lucky where I was in Dolls Point - looking out over Botany Bay and on out into the blue Pacific.

Another beer or two in the warm balmy breeze relaxed me through the short period between light and dark - not even long enough to refer to it as twilight.

​As the evening wore on my mind drifted to Christmases past - Happy memories of childhood and most of my early life and I began to feel slightly maudlin and sorry for myself. - Alone again on Christmas... How different it could have been, should have been, and why it wasn't.

It was a quiet neighbourhood I lived in and it must have been 11 or even later when I heard drifting in on the by now cooler breeze, the melody of Whitney Houston singing 'I will always love you' - Pleasant, calming even, and when it finished it was played again, then again, and again, and again...

'Bittersweet memories, that is all I'm taking with me
So goodbye, please don't cry
We both know I'm not, not what you need...'

​​Somewhere out there, nearby, someone's heart was breaking. It could have been man, woman, young, old, it didn't matter. Just someone who was feeling much worse than I was, tearing themselves apart. And knowing that, the tears started to run down my cheeks, and I just broke down completely. Maybe empathy, maybe a build up from all the pressures of work and life in general, or maybe a realisation of time passing, opportunities lost, roads not taken...

​No matter how bad you may feel yourself there is always someone in a much worse position. 
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Life is what you make it, make it the way you know it should be, not the way it makes you.

A lesson in life most of us learn far too late...
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Over a quarter of a century later, it still remains vivid in my heart and soul...

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