Yesterday morning at a small café off Sydney Road I shared a plate of fried dumplings with my eight year old son.

The café was empty apart from a solitary diner across the room sipping her wonton soup .
As we ate our food we curiously watched a stream of Deliveroo riders collecting small stacks of plastic take-out containers many who returned minutes later for another pick-up.

I couldn’t work it out – why get your dumplings delivered on a Saturday morning when there was a perfectly good and very empty café to come and eat in?

Anyway, an hour later I was down at  Joe’s Market Garden on the banks of the Merri Creek with a hundred or more people (that’s them above).

We were there to be smoked by Wurundjeri elder, Uncle Dave Wandin, in readiness for a replanting of murnong, the Wurundjeri yam daisy that sustained a community here for thousands of years.

There seems to be this silent fight on for our attention going on; one side seeking instant gratification and validation, the other a deeper and enduring connection to community and earth.

On Thursday CERES staff and volunteers held our traditional mid-winter celebration a few days before Saturday’s Beautiful Darkness gathering that marks the solstice.

We threw dried orange peel into the bonfire signifying the hard things we wanted to leave behind us.

I was joined enthusiastically by my budding pyromaniac sons, who love nothing more than adding accelerants to a bonfire.

Well nothing bar the joy of an on-demand movie which, once the flames started to wane, they impressed upon me in no uncertain terms how keen they were to get back to.

Which I get, I totally do.

The contradictory desires of convenience and connection are like having a pushmi-pullyuinside.

But these days I’ve become suspicious of the convenience my devices and their wonderful apps provide.

And I know I’m not the first person to wonder whether, like in the song, my smart phone might be killing me softly.

In a post-script to all this – this week after a random meeting with a former teacher from our primary school I learnt about NUCA.

Neighbours United for Climate Action (NUCA) believe more people would take positive political action if it were social and local with friends, neighbours and some homemade cake, breaking down problems into smaller manageable parts to tackle TOGETHER.

If you are interested NUCA are having a first meeting tomorrow Monday 24th June

7:00 pm – 8:30 pm at Progress Hall 1 Novian Street, Merlynston 3058. 

More info here