Opinion & Perspectives
9 November, 2025
OPINION: Appreciating your country home
Our circumstances don’t generally change much, but one day life is good, another day we wonder what it’s all about.
By Karen Probst
I HAD THE pleasure of spending a day in Melbourne recently; seeing my daughter after five months away, staying at mum’s, a sunny day away from the office, having someone else cook a meal for me… life doesn’t get much better than that.
Or, I could also say I had the misfortune of spending a day in Melbourne recently; the traffic, the noise, waiting for ages at traffic lights to cross the road, people walking past and not smiling, self-serve queues at the supermarket… how glad I am that I did escape to the country.
Life is how we perceive it.
Our circumstances don’t generally change much, but one day life is good, another day we wonder what it’s all about.
So maybe the way we think affects us more than we realise, and if we tweak our approach, maybe that will have a bigger effect than we thought it might.
Budget and election times tend to frustrate me. The endless talk about money; how to cut spending, reduce taxes, bribing us for our vote.
How much more inspiring would it be if we spoke about what sort of society we wanted to be in, what was important to us, and then worked out how to achieve it?
What if rather than focusing on the differences between us, and judging or just tolerating others, what if we celebrate that we’re different and use our differences as a way to learn, open up how we view the world, to discover new experiences?
What if when someone’s talking to us, we actually listen, not just to their words, but to the emotions behind it; listen to understand, not just work out how we’re going to reply?
We could even put our phone down and look at the person we’re with!
How often a small thing changes our day; a friendly smile, a hug, listening to music. Life isn’t really about the big things, is it?
It’s the little things that we do and experience each day that make our life what it is.
Sometimes it’s hard though to appreciate what we have, to concentrate on the moment and not think about what we need to do later, where we need to be later, what responsibilities we have… later.
It’s nice to have been away, it’s nice to be home again.
So, I sit here listening to the birds and the distant sound of the school children, seeing leaves gently moving in the breeze, feeling the sun on my skin, smelling the clean air, and appreciating the view of Melbourne in the rear vision mirror! What will you appreciate this week?
Karen Probst is a Kara Kara Ward councillor for Northern Grampians Shire Council.
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