2 am

My daughter is out on the town with friends for the very first time. She's a bit of a late bloomer, as she will be 20 in 3 months. She is a very sensible young woman. However, I remember being that age, and I remember making stupid decisions that I thought were sensible at the time!

I went to bed, and slept for two hours, went back to sleep and awoke at 1 am. Not home yet. Part of me was celebrating: oh my beautiful girl is growing up and out having fun! Then my mum brain kicked in. I sent a text to ask if she was still ok. There was no answer.

I was proud of myself after that, as instead of ringing every Adelaide Emergency department or the friend she is out with, I simply told myself that she was having fun!!!!
'Stop worrying!'

But of course didn't go back to sleep until her cheery text came in just a few minutes ago.

'She's fine. She's having fun. She's ok.'
I used to think that my parents wanted to control my every move by demanding to know where I was.

I guess I know better now. It's the gut clenching worry of her sensibleness wearing thin under a veil of beer, or some asshole making a stupid decision around her. Maybe one day I'll be able to just go to sleep and trust that all will be well. I guess tonight is not that day.

As I wrote that last sentence, an image flashed in my mind. An image of a tiny baby girl lying on my bed. It was day 3, I had just brought her home and I remember thinking that nothing was ever going to be the same again. The fear overwhelmed my 24 year old self. Self doubt and panic engulfed me, and I cried. Day 3 blues, they call it. I think it was just the realisation that I was a mother. My life was no longer just mine, it was shared. My love would be divided and I feared that I wouldn't be able to do what the job demanded. I think I'm still that overwhelmed 24 year old. Every day.

I better get a couple of hours sleep. I'll pretend to be asleep when she gets home. So she understands that I do trust her. It's what good mothers do.

'How is life in Adelaide a source of inspiration for your writing.'

Inspiration is the “process of being mentally stimulated to do something”. But, it also means to draw breath, to inhale.

I think this is very appropriate. That is always what inspiration has felt like to me: like breathing! Why do I write? Because I have to in order to survive, basically.

So, how has this city we live in inspired me in my writing?

That’s easy. Adelaide is home.

I write about people, and emotion, and experiences I have had in my life, and about home. 

I am a displaced person, I have lived in 3 different countries and this is the place where I belong.

I arrived in Adelaide as a 15 year old foreigner who barely spoke English, and have remained here ever since.

You could say that Adelaide has been my nest, or the ground where I have grown roots.

My children were born here, this is where I found love, and went to University. Adelaide has a belt of trees that breathe air into the city. The lungs of the city. When I go for a walk just down the road I can see it, and feel it, and smell it and there is breathtaking beauty that not only inspires me, but feeds my soul, and reminds me of the hills I left behind in Concepcion, so far away now.

Adelaide has similar climate to my home town, and the geography is similar, down to the river and the proximity to the ocean. Having been part of Gondwana land so long ago, the southern tip of Chile even has similar fauna, and when I walk our national parks, I am transported back to my childhood and the summers spent hiking in the hills and collecting red earth to make models; and smelling the eucalyptus sap that hung in the air when the heat of the day steamed it out of the leaves.

How can I not be inspired should be the question.

Every day I am inspired by my surroundings and the people, and the colours and flavours, the markets, the festivals, my children who are made of Adelaide soil and air; honed by the sun and the river and the water that flows in this beautiful black fertile soil. I would not be who I am without this city, I feel like I have earned a key to it, that has opened up my entire world and given me an education, a job, and people to call my own. Comfort, and love, and happiness beyond measure that continues every day.

It is a refuge away from the begging and the pain that I witnessed in Chile, and a comfort in the knowledge that I will be looked after and those I love will be looked after, and cared for and will receive the comforts that seemed so uncertain when I was a teenager growing up in the third world.

Chile is beautiful, and I will always miss the snow topped mountains, and the Spanish language flowing through my veins; but while Chile is my infancy and my kindergarten, Adelaide is my youth, my present and my future. How can I undo a life of learning and security that this place has given me? I am inspired every day to be a good person, good doctor and a good mother.

So, this is the air I breathe. Adelaide is my muse. I will continue to breathe/write here.  

Please visit the other writers who have taken part in this blog chain

"https://www.facebook.com/groups/writersinadelaide/
"https://adelaidedad.com/…/adelaide-an-inspired-life-for-wr…
"http://www.deanfromaustralia.com/…/adelaide-inspired-city.h…
"http://www.jennifersando.com/cityinspiration/" 
"https://kirstydavisart.com.au/adelaide-inspiration" 
"http://writing-the-message.com/life-in-adelaide-a-source-o…/