Who am I?
I have many guises, but am hopefully without guile.
I am the little girl who grew up in Aussie bush.
I am the woman with the adventurous and independent spirit who joined the Army out of high school, who still loves to travel alone and with a hint of wanderlust and mountains of curiosity that pushes me to experience the many and varied cultures (and their food) of the world; who loves to eat, but finds some things nourish her body and soul more than others.
Who moved to the Republic of Texas to go to Graduate School, rather than a career as an attorney. Who jumped off a cliff and ended up on the east coast of Scotland in an ancient town, with an office in an ancient stone tower seeking to understand the thought life of a Victorian writer and poet.
Who found herself heartsick for the sun and her homeland and so sought the balm of it in familiar antipodean climes in the same place her ancestors came when they traveled across the seas from the British isles. Who finds herself a legal alien in the liminal spaces, who seeks to journey by the slow rhythmic rocking of the train carriage and the lapping of the waves on the bulkhead of the ferry. I write and photograph, I interview and observe. I encounter.
I am the woman who loved her federation homestead standing on the land of her ancestors, her cottage-by-the-north-sea, the studio by the Pacific Ocean, and her cottage-by-the-park in the high plains of Eastern New Mexico, and now finds herself at the base of the Sacramento mountains in southern New Mexico.
I am a wanderer who needs to be rooted. I am a nomad; but I am also a woman who is grounded, and relishes the quotidian of the home. I relish making the recipes of my youth, recipes from the countries I have wandered through, from friends whose tables at which I have eaten: meals of communion, meals of laughter and friendship.
I am the reader, the writer, the teacher, the contemplative, the scholar. I am the creative who rejoices in supporting the development of emerging artists and facilitating conversations about art and culture in the public sphere. I am a writer, a polymathic reader, and a digital nomad. I am a photographer who loves to capture glimpses of beauty and strength, and aspects of a subject’s character they didn’t realise was there.
I am a sister; I am a daughter; I am a friend; I am a wife; I am a hugger; I am citizen; I am a seeker; I am an optimist;
My name is Anna Blanch Rabe.
Photo of Anna: Gillian Gamble Illustration & Photography
Other Photos: Anna Blanch Rabe. All Rights Reserved.
Listening. Observing. Participating. Writing. Photographing. Reflecting.
Anna Blanch Rabe, founder of Anna Blanch Rabe & Associates, has been working with Social Enterprises, socially-responsible businesses, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations since 2006 to develop and effectively execute strategic, digital, and narrative initiatives to gain exposure, develop community capacity, attract talent, and reach new customers. Anna is an Australian-born speaker, writer and advocate. Connect with Anna on Academia.edu, Linked In, Instagram, facebook page, & Twitter.