Brief Intermission II: Australia & My Life in an Endless Summer

I’m back in Down Under—again. Another chapter, another coastline, another pause before whatever comes next. I feel I’ve returned from two such different lives, Thailand and Spain, places that existed like parallel universes to each other, and to me.

If I sat down with myself three years ago, I wouldn’t even know where to begin. Three birthdays, three continents, six countries—if it were served as a meal, I’d be full. Satiated. And yet, there’s always space for something more.

A lot happened in between. Love and loss, learning, unlearning, courage, bravery, sangria. Exploring new places and returning to old ones, sitting down with past selves and realizing that remembering is sometimes more important than chasing the next best, new thing.

The last time I was in Australia, it was a brief intermission—a stop between Spain and Thailand, spent on Mullalone, on the mid-north coast. Now, I’ve landed on the Sunshine Coast, another pocket of this massive country I haven’t yet settled in, another place to get to know.

I’ve been living in an endless summer. Even Thailand’s wet season never dipped below 30 degrees, and from the Mediterranean dreams of Spain to the golden coasts of South Africa, the sun has been beaming down on me, warming me from the inside out for a long time now. The kind of heat that settles into the bones, that makes its way into the way I move, slower, softer. And now, I’m taking some time to just be. To unpack, to settle, to float in the Pacific, pretending I’m still holding hands with the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, too.

And yet, I feel homesick—even though I’m home, in a way. But that feeling has never really left me, that deep pull, the longing for something, somewhere, that can’t quite be named. Saudade, the Portuguese call it. The ache for something that has already passed, or something that may never be again. It’s in the spaces between, in the places I leave and the ones I return to. It lingers, always.

But if there’s one thing I know now, it’s not to take for granted the in between, the limbo.

I mustn’t rush to the next adventure. Because I won’t always be with this version of myself, in this space, with these people, in this exact moment. And so, I will slow down, and I will be with her.