I love working in the Australian bush, the extremes, the WTF moments, the freedom and aloneness, the amazingly Australian characters that you meet.

This week tested me a bit, on Monday my partner set off for Alice Springs on his motorbike.  He was riding across 100kms of soft sandy dirt road.  Then onto the bitumen and doing another 150kms mostly along a single lane road… When I say single lane I mean one lane, when you meet a car or truck coming the other way you both have to move over so that one wheel is on the bitumen and one is running on the dirt.  If you meet a road train ( a truck with 3 – 4 trailers) then you have to get off the road completely.  An hour after he left the community he set off his Spot Tracker.  These funky little devices that we carry, are basically GPS trackers.  We can see exactly were each other is when we are travelling (or my Dad gets to follow us if we are together!!) and in the case of an emergency we can let off an SOS call.  They are great, but I never really wanted to be responding to my partners SOS call.  However since the nearest emergency responder was me, 100kms away, it was us responding.  Not a great start to the day.  My colleague and I piled into the ambulance and started the hour long drive to the SOS GPS spot.

The motorbike had blown a back tire at 130 kms / hr.  One of those amazing people that you meet in the bush had driven past 10 minutes later and found him sitting shakily on the side of the road (in one piece).  They picked him and his stuff up and had driven him into Alice Springs, were they rang us on our sat phone as soon as they got a mobile signal.  Plus they had already arranged someone to come and pick up the bike from the side of the road.  What amazing people.

After that slightly stressful start to the week, my colleague and I returned to a waiting room full of snotty, febrile children with colds, hilariously grumpy old ladies and sheepish young men wanting sexual health testing.  By Friday we had responded to the SOS call, attended a death, assaults but thankfully no births, flown four patients out via Royal Flying Doctors and given out more Panadol then usual due to a cold running through town like wildfire.  So tonight, Friday night and I have had about 6 hours of broken sleep in 36 hours and am facing another 60 hours on call.

The dog next door was chewing a whole cow’s leg when I got home and I didn’t even bat an eyelid.  My motivation is flagging.  I haven’t written any chapters in my book, I haven’t blogged, I haven’t done any consulting work… how do you get back the motivation that you need when you are emotionally and physically out of steam, tired and a bit fed up?

I sat outside on the step, pondering this issue and spend some time reflecting on my gratitude moments for the week and then nature started to put on a show.  It had been hot 35 plus all day until this evening.  Suddenly the wind changed direction bringing a cool change.  The smell of bushfire smoke and dust began swirling around town.  Thick dark clouds were running at each other, like rugby players swirling across the sky.  Lightening flashed over the distant Mountains and tiny little drops of water occasional splash my face, teasing.

All the good experiences of this week came rushing to me.  People who help without expectation of reward, strangers who become friends.  Colleagues who look after each other, physically and mentally.  Grumpy old strong women who run the community.  Technology that allows us to call for help even in the middle of the desert.   Safe travels across this huge land.  The awesomeness of mother nature.

My motivation seems to have returned, the power of gratitude and Mother Nature to the rescue again.