It was my first trip since I came to Australia 22 March 2006. I had dreamed many times before my departure from Poland that at the beginning of my new life in that unusual country, something special could happen … something that could help me become an integral part of that new world and create a new sense of life in that very new reality.

From the first days, I wanted to feel the vibration of that land…. to taste it…..to smell it…...to dream it…..to touch it….to feel sense of thousands of years of Aboriginal culture.

My husband had known that, so he decided to show me his favourite places in the Northern part of Victoria, close to Yarrawonga by the Murray River, the sacred river of the Aboriginal people.

On a still warm March day, we have arrived on a camping place very late.

Can you imagine how fascinating it was for me? Just a few days ago I have landed in Melbourne straight from Warsaw, that big, modern and cold city, full of snow. But here, everywhere around were palms, eucalypts and the smell of warm Australian air.

We have decided to get married so quickly. After 4 months of friendship Andrew asked me, ”Darling, do you want to marry me?” I said, “H’m….I have to think about it. Give me a few days for the answer”. He said with some strong flash in his eyes, ”Ok, you can think if you want to, but I know that you will be my wife.” So, instead of waiting and thinking three days about it, after three minutes I said, “YES”. I was in love with him and knew that only that man could become my husband. He has understood me and loved me like nobody before.

But he didn’t know at that moment that something else, very important to me, influenced my decision. It was a dream I have dreamed 3 years ago about a white ship and a man who took me to another land, and another dream I dreamed 2 months before I have met Andrew personally the first time. The sense of that dream story was very impressive to me. I believe in dreams. They came true so many times in my life. Let me tell you my first dream.

Receiving the literary award

I was on a dock waiting to board a big ship. But I was not sure if it would be good for me. I was alone and that long trip over the ocean seemed to me a little bit dangerous. But all of a sudden a loud voice came from the ship, “You have to come in NOW! With him. There’s no more time for waiting.” It sounded like an order. I looked around and saw a stranger, a man I had never seen before, standing close to me with a smile. He was so nice and friendly and told me, “Come with me, we have no time.” And I went on board with him.

So….when Andrew asked me about marriage I answered, “YES”, without thinking too much and now I was beginning that journey with him. I remembered my mother was shocked because my decision announced very big changes for everybody, not only for me. I wanted to leave Poland, family, friends and everything I have done there over many years (I was a journalist, writer and very famous healer) and go to live in Australia with Andrew!

It seemed like madness to many of my friends. But my lovely mother knew that her daughter was a responsible and wise girl and accepted my decision.

So after 12 days from the first application, we have got married. It was unusual because it is very difficult to get a marriage licence in Poland in a such short time. Every couple must wait at least one month. If you want to get married in two weeks you have to have a very good reason. But we wanted to get married before Andrew’s departure for Melbourne and we had only sixteen days.

At the first meeting the marriage registrar said, “No, it is absolutely impossible. You have no valid reason for that”. I asked him, “Is it valid enough a reason to be extremely in love to get married so fast?” After a while, he told me that it IS an important reason…and gave us a very short term, 12 days.

My family and friends were totally surprised but every one warmed to my new husband. They had to prepare very quickly for the wedding ceremony. It was a wonderful wedding! I looked so beautiful and felt so happy!

Everybody wondered about my choice and a few close friends, told me with a big sincerity that it was a light-minded decision. From their point of view, that hurried wedding was very risky for me. I was really tired of all that arguments. We loved each other so much and we were not crazy teenagers, but serious people in their 50s. I knew that I had to be strong and not allow the opinion of other people to influence my mind and feelings.

A few days after the wedding Andrew had to go back to Australia. We were very upset at the Warsaw airport before his departure because we would not see each other again for many months. Our time had been so precious but so short. Finally he flew out and I remained there alone with all the problems to resolve on my own. But his challenge was to prepare everything in Melbourne for our new life together.

After 4 months of waiting for a spouse visa, far away from my husband with many, many troubles related to the closure of my life in Poland I finally reached my goal. I landed in Melbourne and the first cuddle of my new husband was like a haven for me. But I remembered so well the difficult period I had passed recently.

I was very, very exhausted so Andrew took me straight from the airport to St Kilda Beach to rest and take a deep breath of the fresh sea breeze. I felt so reassured that my husband was understanding of my feelings. I seemed totally fatigued not only from the long trip but more from the stress, pressure and tension of the past few months.

And two weeks later, we were fixing a tent in the bush by the Murray River. We had to do it in deep darkness and a strong wind was dancing among the trees. There was nobody around, only the bush and strange sounds everywhere. That night I slept very close to my husband with open eyes and ears. I was very excited!

After all I was on ancient land which was still vibrating with the sounds of the didgeridoo and it penetrated every cell of my body, creating for me visions from the DREAMTIME-the beginning of EVERYTHING……the beginning of TIME….the FIRST CREATION.

“Is it possible that our dreams and visions are pictures from the future?”

I reflected on that, looking with tenderness on my deeply sleeping husband. I started to recall that other unusual dream she dreamed 3 years ago…

I was sitting on the ocean beach looking at the horizon. My two best friends came to me to say good-bye and they left me alone on that beach.

After a while, a little white ship came out of the fog and stopped near the seashore. Only one man was on that ship and he invited me to come in and sail away with him.

I have felt I knew him very well. I have known he could not come to me. I had to go to him. There was no boat so I decided to swim. However, I couldn’t move!

I realized that my legs had grown into the earth! All of a sudden, I felt the land around my legs start moving and cracking. I looked at the man on the ship…and I saw that he was very powerful.

I felt the great power of his WILL and LOVE move the earth, cutting off a big piece of the land with my feet growing into it and navigating me to the ship. I was tremendously impressed by the force of his power. I came on board and sailed away with him.

That dream was an announcement of change. And now it had came true. I am in Australia with my lovely husband, far away from my country where I had left everything. It seemed crazy and was difficult because I had been so deeply attached to my homeland. But his will and his love had achieved the miracle of uprooting me.

I opened my eyes, looked at him once more and cuddled closer to that very real husband with a strange feeling of unreality, and finally fell asleep.

I woke up in the early morning when the sun was up and the fresh air made me feel a little cold. My husband was setting up a campfire to prepare the morning tea for us. Cockatoos screeched loudly above our heads. The sun was shining like a golden star in the blue sky, and the smell of water from the sacred river gave me such a good feeling I had never felt before.

The water attracted me and called to me, so I stepped into the water, plunged my body and at the same time some strange feeling pervaded my skin, soul and consciousness…

THE SACRED WATER OF THE MURRAY RIVER HAD BLESSED ME WITH THE GENTLE, SOFT TOUCH.

And I felt at that mystical moment, all the Aboriginal indigenous vibration of that ancient Land accepting me to be a part of this unusual country.

“Tea is ready, my darling” – I have heard from a distance the voice of my husband.

EWA MAY