Pom in Oz with Derek Goforth: US trip reinforced simple acts of kindness, beauty of nature are true gifts

Travelling has a way of stripping life back to its essentials. Being in America did that for me but coming home to Australia only reinforced it. Different countries, different accents, different landscapes, yet the same truth kept surfacing wherever we found ourselves. There are only two sources of anything truly good in this world. People and nature. Of course, the time spent with my wife and kids sits above everything else. That goes without saying. But beyond family, two moments from that trip have stayed with me, not because they were spectacular, but because they revealed something deeper. The first was Newark, New Jersey. Newark was where we stayed while visiting the New York area. Urban. Gritty. A little scruffy. For many, it is nothing more than a convenient place to catch a train into Manhattan. But there was something more to it than that. In a small local diner we met the owner, Mr Burgendy. We walked in cold, tired,and clearly not locals, and were welcomed like old friends. When my wife mentioned she felt like a hot chocolate, he walked down the street and returned with one in his hands. No charge. No expectation. He sat with us and talked. About travel. About food. Boxing. Culture. And about Newark. He spoke with pride about his neighbourhood. Not pretending it was glamorous but loving it for what it was. Vibrant. Full of energy. Full of people. Through the way he spoke, the place became beautiful, not because of appearances but because of meaning. What touched us most was the kindness itself. The kind that is not performative or strategic. A stranger simply present in the moment, saying, here I am, and meeting us exactly where we were. That moment stayed with us long after the plates were cleared. It cost nothing, yet it gave more than most things ever do. The second moment could not have been more different. Standing in the Everglades, surrounded by a vast and ancient landscape, I was struck by the quiet. Not an empty silence but a living one. Insects humming. Birds calling somewhere unseen. The sense that this land had existed long before me and would continue long after. You do not dominate a place like that. You stand within it. Small. Still. Listening. Even now, the sounds of that place echo in my ears. Two moments. One shaped by human kindness. One shaped by the natural world. Together, they made something very clear. Every good thing I can name traces back to one of these two sources. Compassion. Beauty. Belonging. Peace. Awe. None of them exist without people or nature. And for me, neither exists in isolation. Both are expressions of creation. Reflections of a god who gives freely and generously, who meets us where we are, and whose goodness shows itself through people and through the world itself. We chase substitutes because they are measurable and shiny. But they fade. The things that last are grown, not bought. Given, not acquired. It is the same in Australia. A backyard conversation. A long drive through open country. A quiet beach at dusk. The pattern does not change. When life feels full, it is because we have tapped into something older than ourselves. Something already there, waiting to be recognised. The good things feel given, not manufactured. People and nature. Everything worthwhile flows from them. The older I get, the more certain I am of that. Derek Goforth is an expat and father of three living and working in Geraldton