THE CHILDREN. Like all children, mine are so different, such individuals. Evita, our eldest daughter has found the song in her feet and allows herself to not give up when offered but to push on through, finding beauty along the way to metamorphe the experience. When we apply love to our intent to facilitate change, we overcome all obstacles. Love is the spirit of life and connects us with our joy. Our eldest son has found many ways to avoid the plodding miles and has been supported by a very positive male role model in this idea. I have finally reached a place where I have no criticism of this view. When I tried to tackle it head on I have been met with resistance that has left my son with a certain weight about his spirit. I asked spirit for guidance and have had several unexpected conversations. On the sunset of that day, yesterday, a full blood Native American dressed down the group with a reflection about us needing more discipline, especially with regard to the children. Our positive male role model hastily asked me to consider that this man has masocistic tendencies, that I must not take this personally. (He as a friend has recognised that my weakness as a mother has been my "toughness", which he could see is not working for Lachlan.) Today I had to drive the food truck and with all the logistics, all the kids went in different directions. Evita walked the whole twenty- five kilometres without me there! Lachlan was my right hand man in the truck. As it occurred to me that a certain letting go of my ideals, mixed with the intent to foster a love for this walking, would work better for the spirits of all my children, we passed an eagle eye level and he looked into my soul in that brief moment. I shared this understanding directly with Lachlan's spirit, without words and last night he went to sleep with a real lightness and joy. His last words were about what this trip means to him as an initiation into his teenage years. Christopher has a more choleric disposition than our melocholic older boy and out here this serves him well. He rides or walks, whatever is required. He has a learned behaviour of sulking when things don' t go his way and but so far we have only seen this aspect once this trip. He loves the country. He has an immediate connection with the land. He is closely connected to his indigenous spirit. Shanti has really enjoyed the whole experience, although she has some social inhibitions around speaking to adults so living with a group of thirty adults and seventeen children has had challenges for her. The walking is difficult for her five year old body and sensibilities. She wants to walk slowly, look at flowers and make earth art. This is not possible when walking twenty odd kilometres in the heat of this country. So I tow a cart that she gets in and out of. I encourage her to walk and then come up with games and distractions to help her keep pace. On good days she walks miles. So we continue walking together...