Belonging
Oil on Belgium Linen, 79 x 53cm
The King Protea, reclining in the dusty pink vase, was pondering her ancestry. Millions of years ago, when Australia and Southern Africa were still joined as part of the Gondwana supercontinent, the Proteaceae family had all lived together on the same slab of Earth. Oh, what wonderful times they had been! She remembered what a blessing it had been to see her cousins daily: the ruby red Waratah (even though she secretly had always been jealous of the Waratah’s twirly comma-like petals), the proud - and somewhat bristly - Banksia, and the delicate, but complicated Grevillea.
She was proud of her ancestry. They had been, and still were, a strong family, able to diversify and bloom even though the plates of Earth had separated them.
She remembered a quote from one of her favourite Pooh Bear books, when Winnie the Pooh told Piglet, “If ever there is a tomorrow when we’re not together… there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart…I’ll always be with you.”