What do you do when life throws you a mountain of challenges, when your world is turned upside-down?
When your world goes dark, where do you find that inner light to go on?
Julia Baird may be better known as a journalist and host of The Drum (and acclaimed biographer of Queen Victoria!) but a cancer diagnosis and three major surgeries led her to the question of what sustains us. Baird explores what got her through her dark times in her memoir, Phosphorescence: On awe, wonder and things that sustain you when the world goes dark.
I’m not sure if there could be a more perfect book for now – as many of us grapple with the life-changing impact of a pandemic.
Baird dives into a world of luminous creatures, stillness, savouring, friendship, wonder and awe. She shares stories of others who have found wonder under the ocean, awe in space and resilience in the most adverse of circumstances.
Phosphorescence has been on my current-reading shelf for over a month. I hoovered it up within days of getting a copy and was in a stupor of happy-place indulgence. Since then, I’ve found myself going back to it, dipping in, finding insight anew, an appreciation of the natural world, and the strength and goodness of humanity.
There are so many things I loved about this book. The descriptions of the sea made me want to hop in a van and follow the coast around Australia. Stories of Aboriginal Australian approaches to stillness made me wonder how much wisdom we miss out on – and how different our attitude to aged care would be – if we truly respected our elders. Stories of astronauts being awed by the earth from space, made me want to send all our world leaders into space (a la Carl Sagan’s suggestion) for a little bit of perspective.
Baird found her own phosphorescence in looking outside herself, in the appreciation of friends and family; the beauty, awe and wonder of the world, nature, the sea; having faith, a sense of purpose, and living one’s own story, deliberately; finding stillness, paying attention, seeing the good. Being curious.
Phosphorescence is a book I’m sure I will continue coming back to when things go dim. It is wondrous. It is awesome. It is full of light. And, in sharing her story, Baird gently encourages us to find our own light within. What a gift.
Phosphorescence: On awe, wonder and things that sustain you when the world goes dark by Julia Baird is published by 4th Estate.