Bulletproof

Have you ever had one of those days when something happens that is so perfect, nothing can touch you? The sort of day where the end of the world could occur and somehow you would be able to deal with it. Sometimes this feeling comes as a result of having done something amazing, like running a marathon, paddling 100km or acing an exam. The event is so huge that everyone can at least understand why you're feeling great, even if they don't quite get how indestructible you really are.

It's easy with the big events to feel the big emotions. I had an email the other week that made me feel absolutely bulletproof. In that moment, as I read it, there was nothing I couldn't do, no mountain I couldn't conquer, no sea I couldn't swim. I was utterly undauntable.

I didn't want to lose that feeling, I wanted to keep being that person who could do anything. The problem of course, everyday life creeps in and brings us back to reality with a thud, making us remember who we were rather than who we are and who we could be.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

I decided that having finally won my bulletproof vest I was going to keep it, but not by just constantly seeking the next big buzz. Instead, my vest has been buffered and filled by the small things, like when a stranger smiles at me in the street or my husband delivers a unexpected cup of coffee to my desk.  Like discovering the mulberry tree down the road is full of fruit or my fluffy cat deciding that sitting next to my computer while I work is the purrfect way to spend her day. It's finding a smile creeping across my face as I look at my freshly mown lawn or my clean and tidy kitchen benchtop.

And I have to say that my bulletproof vest is feeling pretty damn fine. It's not to say that bad stuff can't dent it, but rather there is an awful lot of good stuff surrounding all of us everyday and that to me is pretty awesome.

So here's to all of us developing bulletproof vests and learning that there is nothing we cannot do if we just believe in ourselves and what life has to offer us.

How We Measure Our Days

On one of our favourite walks we pass through the Memorial Gardens next to Chatswood Station. Several years ago when the station was being renovated some bureaucrat had the bright idea to 'relocate' the garden so that the land could be used for 'better' purposes. Luckily the voices of reason and heritage won out, and although the garden lost a metre or two to the railway expansion the rest was preserved for our continued pleasure.

Each year the garden passes through many seasons. Only a month or so ago the rose bushes were just wooden silhouettes cut back literally to within an inch of their lives. But as the days have warmed, the leaves have sprouted and the flowers have started to blossom. A week ago we had our first big sniff of a budding red rose and yet by today the garden has already become a veritable banquet of smells. From the classic big red, through to the yellow Texas rose and the mauve 'fizzy' one that we just love, Neil and I leapt from one delight to the next each of us trying to find the best smelling rose of the day. Sure we probably looked like lunatics to those commuters who strode through the garden on their way to another busy day, but hey their loss not ours.

Our other great pleasure on our walks is the wildlife we meet along the way. Occasionally, particularly in the bush we encounter the odd and the exotic like the blue tongue lizard or the wild peacock, but everyday in our good old local suburban streets we look out for old friends and new. Here we know many of the local cats, dogs and even rabbits by name, and to those whose 'official' name is a mystery we have allocated nicknames to which surprisingly they often respond.

Because cats are mercurial creatures with an excellent understanding of the principle of 'random habits' they cannot be relied upon to be out on show and so each day we count ourselves lucky if during the hour we come across two old friends or new. A three cat morning is considered very lucky and a four cat one cause for extreme celebration, particularly if it includes new friends as well as old.

By such measures then today has been a day of extraordinary excellence, this morning we met not one nor two nor three cats on our walk but five!! And in this count were two new friends one of whom paid us the rare honour of allowing us to stroke his fine black coat. And then to top things off as we arrived back home feeling very delighted, who should be up on the balcony outside my office door, but our own black cat regally surveying the neighbourhood from his elevated second storey position.

It's the small things in life that really matter, take time to smell the roses, pat a furry friend or just smile because you can. :-).

Developing Random Habits

Some say it takes twenty-one days to develop a habit though I suspect this refers to good habits only, as I know that over the course of my lifetime I have managed to develop plenty of bad habits in way less than that time (which fits in well with St Augustine's observation that habit, if not resisted soon becomes necessity). Yet while living life like a free flowing electron in a nuclear reactor has certain many attractions, I can also see the value in developing 'necessary' habits that provide anchor points along life's random path. 


Lao-tzu famously  said that A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. So far in the last week since committing to our big walk I have calculated that we have already taken well over 100,000 steps and the journey is feeling great. [And no I'm not going to wax lyrical here about one small step for man one giant step for mankind ;-)]


Last night we sat with Peri and Joel, who have committed to come on this adventure with us, and started planning for our first big team walk. On Sunday 30 October we are planning walking on the 7 bridges walk from Rozelle, to Hunters Hill, to Lane Cove, to Wollstonecraft, to Milsons Point to the Rocks to Pymont and back to Rozelle. 


What was great about our planning was the excitement that started to build between us all as we talked about not just this walk but the big one looming in the not too distant future. Instead of being daunted by going 100km in one hit we became pumped and the commitment to the goal grew. None of us have ever walked that far and though we have all stayed awake for a day or two at times walking through the night is going to be a new experience for all of us.


And what was even more fantastic was that we all had the same view about the journey. Part of the adventure for us is not just following the Coast Trek text book. The training has to be fun if it's going to become a habit. And by way of contradiction it also has keep being fresh and surprising. Doing the same thing over and over every day is just not something any of us are good at. We want to have random adventures with unseen events that challenge us to become more that who we are.


So here's to the next 100,000 steps who knows where they are going to lead us!

Everyday Heroes

All too often people spend their lives searching for the perfect answer, the perfect teacher, the perfect solution to make their life a little bit more perfect. Yet few of us realize that we don't need to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to find that inspiration to change who we are and to become who we want to be.

I am constantly inspired by my friends and family and the more I think about it the more I realize that everyone in my life has something to offer me on this journey if only I look a bit harder and listen a bit longer. As I blog along I hope to mention everyone I know at some point on the way, but today I would like to pay particular homage to Adrienne Jerram and Michael Stelzer who have inspired me to aim for a goal that at the moment seems totally impossible, but through their experience I know will somehow be achieveable.

I'm sure if a year ago I had told Adrienne that she would run in a half marathon or Michael that he would row in the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic they would have laughed at me. Yet during the last year I have seen in both of them the difference a goal can make. Adrienne has already completed the City to Surf, the Sydney Half Marathon and now has her eyes set on the New York Marathon (though maybe not this year) and Michael is currently gearing up for his big race in a couple of weeks. 

What I have learnt from them is that the very act of setting a goal changes who you are and how you think about yourself and your life. As I have started to focus on the 100km Coast Trek that we have committed to do on March next year, I have discovered an amazing clarity of purpose that spills over beyond the challenge into other aspects of my life. 

After several days back on our usual walk to Chatswood and back, albeit at a slightly speedier pace, Neil and I set off yesterday (Sunday) for the first 'big' walk in our training schedule. We'd marked out roughly a 15km course and were hoping to do it in under 4 hours given that about half of it was trekking up and down in the bush. Along the way an amazing feeling took over. We knew we could do the distance but just having the 'big' goal in the background  made us more committed to plough on and actually do almost 20km. 

We got home and we felt great. Sure the feet were a bit worn, but we were pumped.  The energy that we got from the walk and the lovely sights we saw along the Middle Cove foreshores motivated us to do a bit of gardening and other chores that somehow had kept getting put to one side.

And this morning I woke up with the feeling of victory, having already achieved something more than what I set out to do. Day by day, week by week as we build up to our 100km walk I am in awe of how our lives may change and excited for who we are already becoming.

Thank you so much Adrienne and Michael for being such an inspiration!!