Running in the Rain

I went for a run yesterday. A nice 15km run.

I live in Melbourne, and it’s as true as they say. In Melbourne you have four seasons in one day. And yesterday, it was sunny enough to get my washing dry in the morning, and wet enough to drench me to the bone while I ran in the afternoon.

But run I did. There is something so liberating about running in the rain. About casting off the ‘sensible restrictions’ and things your mother once told you (and I would most likely tell my children too) of you’ll catch a cold. There is a freedom to be found about not letting your external circumstances control your internal choices and decisions.

Life is full of reasons that would try and tell me why ‘I can’t’ do things. Lots of things. But, it is entirely up to me to decide whether I listen to those reasons and agree, or whether I find reasons why ‘I can’ and persist, be patient, persevere and defy all odds to succeed and do it anyway.

Todays blog is short, but I don’t believe in complicating things that really aren’t that complex.

Stop saying I can’t.

Start believing you can.

Change your belief.

Change your words.

Change your actions.

You’ll change your world.

You might even change the world around you.

You can. You will.

Wear those knickers on the outside and run in the rain.

Balance

Have you ever seen an aerial artist in action? The trapeze artists, those that do silk/tissue and ariel hoop acts, the tight rope walkers. I have always been fascinated with what they can do and how they can balance so incredibly well, holding their bodies in an array of forms with seemingly little effort, not to mention little external support.

I have a friend who is an aerial artist, and about 2 years ago she took me through a basic hoop session. Lets just say that although I thought I was quite fit and strong at the time, I found muscles I didn’t know existed! What became apparent is that physical core strength is key to being able to balance, especially at any kind of height. Hanging on that hoop a couple of meters of the ground, I desperately wished I had more core strength than I possessed!

Physical core strength is something that I personally am working on at the moment, trying to regain it after having baby #4. It takes hard work, and an element of good pain to achieve it. It takes commitment and discipline. I can not do one set of core strength exercises and expect that that will do the trick. Oh no, I need to do them regularly and effectively for them to actually make a difference.

I have been pondering over the last few weeks and months about balance. And not just my physical capacity to stay on two feet! But balance in life. In many discussions of late, I’ve found myself talking about how the issue at hand comes down to how we balance two extremes. In diet and exercise, in work and life (the corporate slogan of the 00’s), in being cautious vs being risky, so on and so forth. There is a balance to find.

And just as physically we need core strength to help us balance, we need an internal core strength to help us balance life, our hearts and emotions, our internal wellbeing. So where can we find, how do we find, internal balance? How can we navigate the oceans of life, the swells and squalls, the gale force winds at times, keeping the boat from capsizing?

Faith, Hope and Love. Joy, Rest & Peace. Those are 6 things that I am going after in my life to keep me balanced internally. So that regardless of what gets thrown my way, I am like a bobo doll that gets knocked down and bounces back up with a smile on my face.

Do I do this all the time now? Absolutely not. Can any of us expect us to be perfectly balanced 100% of the time? I don’t think so. So my suggestion is that we remove that expectation from ourselves, but that we put on an expectation that we try. That we think about how we can pursue faith, hope and love, joy, rest and peace in each and every day. (I think I’ve just discovered the next 6 blog topics… if not more!)

It is my conviction that as we do this, we build our core strength. And when we build our core strength we build our capacity to balance at a height. And as you go out and love on people around you, in ways big and small, you will rise in influence. You will be making a difference in peoples lives as you challenge yourself to continue drawing out the hero in you, you will inspire them to draw out the hero in their lives.

So go on, try wearing your knickers on the outside – you are a hero to the people around you.

The Thankfulness Project

I have been developing a habit with my kids over the last few years of ‘doing our thankfuls’ each day. Sometimes this is in the morning on the way to school, and sometimes in the evening just before bed. It’s fascinating to see what they come up with sometimes. And my 3 year old could go for hours. It was something I began to try and help them be people who see the good things in life and are thankful for even the smallest of things, and not whinging whiney people.

 And don’t you worry, the kids don’t let Dave or I get away with not doing our thankfuls. It is a practice I am convinced we should all become better at. I have found that once I get going, there is so much to be thankful for. So SO SOOOOO much.

One thing that I will never forget is hearing a friend who travels a lot talk of being asked the questions nearly daily “How did you sleep last night?”. At this stage in their world, the answer was generally “Not very well, but that’s ok, I get to have another shot at it tonight.”

I have recalled that many a time over the last 7 years of broken sleep, and I will no doubt continue to recall that for years to come! What I love about it is the shift in perspective. There is a choice to make: I can either get grumpy about the fact that I didn’t get much sleep last night and let it ruin my day OR I can choose to view it from the perspective that I can’t change last night, tonight is a new night and I get another chance, let’s get on and enjoy today (even if it is with a cup or two of coffee!). I make the choice to be thankful and life is simply so much more enjoyable.

I heard a story a few weeks back of someone who decided to spend their day being thankful to their Creator. So they began in the morning with some simple yet important things – thank you for the sunshine, thank you for the rain, thank you for breath, thank you for my body… Now this person is a doctor, and once they started on the body, they spent the remainder of the day there, being thankful for even the finest smallest functions and processes that occur within the body. Now I’m no doctor, but having experienced the growth of a human baby inside me four times, I am amazed at the way the body works and functions, without me doing a thing. There is so much to be thankful for, just in the way we live and move and breath each and every day.

I was out running the other day and decided to try this and be thankful for a variety of things for the length of my run (7.5km this particular day). I began with the wind and how it brings refreshing, how it shifts and changes the shapes and forms of the clouds. How the wind brings the rain and how it distributes the pollen from the flowers so that more flowers grow. From there I spent most of the remaining time on how my body uses the wind in my lungs to get oxygen to my muscles through my blood so that my legs can keep moving and actually get me to the end of my run! I was thankful for legs that work and work well that I can run and feel the wind through my hair. I was never short of things to be thankful for. I will never be short of things to be thankful for, no matter what happens in life. There is always, always, always something to be thankful for.

So, I challenge you, as I challenge myself, to take on the thankfulness project. Especially as we come into the end of the year and the Christmas season, what have you to be thankful for. Find at least 5 things each day and share them with someone. Be it your partner, your bestie, your colleagues, your kids, your parents, a stranger (I’m thankful for the way you scan my groceries and help me get this all important task done…). Think outside the box, far and wide. Becoming a person of thankfulness will lighten your load and lift your heart as you see things from a fresh and new perspective.

 ______________

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough”

Oprah Winfrey

“Gratitude is the real treasure God wants us to find, because it isn’t the pot of gold but the rainbow that colors our world.”

Richelle E. Goodrich

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I Am

Last week I watched a story about a man who only recently became a quadruple amputee. He was given a 1% chance of surviving the surgery. He survived. He has a wife and four young children. It was an amazing story on so many levels. His attitude towards life and his new journey was so positive and uplifting. He owned to having down moments – who wouldn’t in that situation? But he realised that to stay in those down moments was only going to cripple him, more so than his physical condition.

What I found most moving about his story was a small, yet incredibly significant comment right at the end of the interview. He talked about how one of the most difficult things to deal with was the realisation that so much of his identity had been tied up with what he did for a job and what he did around the house. He had identified himself by what he did, not who he was. And now he was in a position of being able to do very little, he was wrestling with writing his 20 word twitter description of himself – who he is.

He also made the comment that relationships were so much more important to him now where he had previously been so focused on tasks and getting things done.

We can easily attach our identity to so many things that really are outside of who we are. Hi, I’m Sally the only female motor mechanic on the racing circuit. Hi, I’m Reginald the most awarded postie in Melbourne. Hi, I’m Flora the anorexic. Hi, I’m Edward, the one with a medical history the size of an encyclopedia. Hi, I’m Penny the one with all those beautiful kids.

These are achievements, careers and conditions. They are not who you are. And they are not what we should base our relationships on.

Identity and relationships are such an important key to living a life untethered to the opinions of others. A life where another’s success is not a threat to your own sense of security and well being. A life where you can just be, finding rest and peace in your inner self, in your spirit – what ever you want to call it – despite what is going on around you.

I am reminded of two other experiences I had that struck a strong cord with this. A few years ago I attended my 10 year reunion. It was a strange experience. I was the only one in attendance who had had kids. And not just one, but 3 at that stage. I remember having a conversation with someone who asked the main question asked at those kind of events, ‘What are you doing now?’ to which I responded with ‘I’m a stay at home mum to three children’ . They quite literally didn’t know what to say… after an extended pause came a profound ‘Oh’. They were relating to me as though my full time job of motherhood was who I was, not just what I did on a daily basis. I wasn’t offended by this but somewhat amused and gobsmacked – does the belief that my identity is what I do really run so deep that carrying out a conversation became difficult?

When I was in year 8, we were asked to write a poem titled I Am. It was some specific type of poem, those details I have forgotten. I just remember writing it so clearly. Having to put words together in a succinct fashion that described who I am, not just what I do at a time in life where we are often struggling to find our place as emerging adults not just children. However it was such a valuable task to complete and I have since re-written this poem. Taking a moment to explore who I am, in myself and in my relationships.

So, in pursuing this idea of being a hero in everyday life, I challenge you to really think about and take an honest look at where you find your sense of identity. If everything was stripped away, like it was for the man, husband and father in this story, who would you say you are? Maybe write your own I Am poem or statement, or look at your twitter description and see how much of it relates to what you do versus who you are.

One thing I know for sure. You are amazing. You have been created uniquely and wonderfully, with a capacity for greatness in life. You are here on this planet for such a time as this because you are valuable and needed to make this world a better place. You can be a superhero to the people in your world today, because you are you.  That is one thing I am sure of. Enjoy being yourself and learn to love it.

 

To see the story referred to here go to http://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/features/article/-/19106972/bionic-dad/

 

Adventure

What is an adventure? When I hear the word adventure, I tend to think of touring vast open deserts, or clustered, humid rainforests. Of diving deep into the ocean, or soaring high into the sky, reaching the stars. Of exploring unknown and unchartered territory far away from here. Of new things, different things, new people, different people, new spaces, different places. Of something that is beyond my comfort zone. Indeed the dictionary definition according to Google is

ad-ven-ture

/ad’venCHer/

Noun

An unusual and exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity.

Verb

Engage in hazardous and exciting activity, esp. the exploration of unknown territory: “they had adventured into the forest”.

Synonyms

Noun – venture

Verb – risk – venture – hazard – jeopardize – dare – jeopard

 

Dear dear friends of mine recently relocated across to the other side of Australia. They are on an adventure. My parents have recently been in Mozambique, going places they’ve never been on an adventure. Another friend is in Mozambique for 3 months, learning new things and living in conditions so far beyond what she’s used to it’s almost unfathomable. She’s on an adventure.

There is part of me that longs for an adventure. To buy a plane ticket to some place and go exploring, finding the new things and strange things and building memories and experiences in those places beyond my day to day life.

This may well happen at some point. But certainly not in the next 3-6 months (at least!). My current adventure is found at home and looks somewhat different…. this is my current adventure.

I was getting very frustrated in the last few weeks feeling left behind and like I was going to  miss out on the adventures happening around me. Here I am, at home, up to my neck in dishes, in washing, in nappies, dirty floors, snotty noses and 4 children all needing my love, attention and care.

Each day felt the same. I’d wake up not having had enough sleep – generally up to a minimum of 2 kids through the night. To reach 6am would be a sleep in. “Mum, I’m hungry and want breakfast” is child-speak for, “Goodmorning Mummy. How did you sleep? I love you”. 4 breakfasts (5 if you include the husbands) later, with a cold coffee, there are dishes to be done, children to get ready for school, and the like. Shopping needs to be done, morning tea made, lunch prepared, washing put on and hung out, dinner thought about and fuel put in the car. The day goes on like this. And when you eventually get to collapse into bed at the end of the day, you close your eyes wondering how long you’ll get before the first, “Mummy…” comes at the end of the bed. Rarely do you get a thank-you.

If you read just that paragraph, you could get quite depressed at the daily existence, be you a mother, a full time worker, a part-time worker and part time carer. Whatever it is you do, there is a danger of it becoming very monotonous.

My husband and I have been talking about how we can get out of the routine of day to day living and do something new. Maybe a change of scenery, maybe a new job for him, maybe an adventurous holiday, maybe a business venture together. We have been talking for 12months now about this, and found no peace in any of our ideas. I was coming close to my wits end…. “What are we doing and where are we going? I can not bear to go through another year just doing the same old same old, being stuck in the routine of life”.

Then along came one Sunday morning, I had left all 4 children with my husband for the first time to escape in a last ditch effort to save my sanity for that week. As I sat, wrote and read, I had this thought, a moment of enlightenment if you like. “What if I lived everyday as an adventure?”

The reality is, that every day is new and unchartered territory. I may go about doing the same things as the day before, but I have never lived that exact moment before. I have never had this conversation before, or driven this road at this point in history before. I have never seen the clouds in this formation or placement in the sky, and today’s sunset is different to the thousands and thousands and thousands that have gone before it. Every moment of every day could be my next adventure. When I view life like that, each moment, no matter how seemingly routine, is filled with possibility. When I view each moment as a possibility, my children arguing becomes a possibility for learning and fun together rather than a frustrating recurrence of yesterdays events. The dishes needing to be done are an opportunity to take a quiet moment looking at the wonders of nature out the kitchen window and marvelling at creation, not just the cause of my dry and withered hands. The washing that never seems to end becomes an opportunity to love on my family and show them care and affection, finding joy in the ‘chores’ required to look after them. The school run becomes an ‘I spy’ adventure, who can spot a new bird, tree or animal?

What opportunity is before you for adventure today?

Slow Down

I have had a momentous birthday in the last month, turning 30. In reflecting on my 20’s, I realised I have actually done quite a lot. I have become engaged, and married. Completed a degree, written a book, taken a 10 week overseas holiday, had 4 children, run a bible college, worked in small business, bought and renovated a house, ran a half marathon and celebrated each year that’s passed with dear friends and family who fill my life with love, laughter and fun.

There were many different seasons in these 10 years. At times it felt like I was trying to swim upstream through mud. There were days I felt I was floating on air. There were many a day where I probably drank more coffee than I shouldhave to survive the sleepless nights of early parenthood. I had moments where I had to make hard choices to get moving and do something outside of my comfort zone. I even had the odd occasion where I felt that life was in control. Most of the time, I just felt busy and like I was learning lessons that ‘would be valuable in years to come’, but right now I didn’t have time to process or understand.

Since I was little, my parents have told me to SLOW DOWN. I didn’t like listening to this request. And I still don’t. I like to live a full life. But, in my ‘old age’, one of those lessons of my 20’s is coming back to me. SLOW DOWN. Take a moment. Observe what is around you.

With 4 young children, it is somewhat physically impossible for me to actually slow down. A day looks rather crazy: wake up, exercise, shower, coffee machine on, feed baby, feed big kids, dress young kids, pack school bags, brush teeth, make sure everyone has been to the toilet, get in the car, go to school, go to kinder, do the groceries, feed the baby, entertain the toddler, go home, put groceries away, put on a load (or 10) of washing, cook something resembling dinner, hang out washing, feed baby, pick up at kinder, pick up at school, go home, do homework, bath kids, feed baby, feed big kids, empty school bags, wash lunchboxes, make fresh lunches for tomorrow, pick up toys, put kids to bed, feed and bath baby, eat something myself, pick up more toys, do more washing, do the dishes and collapse. And then the alarm goes off in around 6 hours time with a feed or two in between. Life is busy.

But I can make a choice to slow down in my mind and my spirit. I can make a choice to stop and smell the roses. To look at the clouds in the sky and notice how they are shaped and formed, different to any day before. I can notice the people walking beside me at the shops and how they are limping. Perhaps they need more love and tender care than I do today. To observe the lady making my coffee and how she smiles at her customers but looks like her heart is going to break. I could be the one to change her day, perhaps even her life, if only I would slow down, notice and act.

Each day is a gift. Each moment a treasure to be unwrapped and revealed, not just endured and survived. Each one of us has something to offer the person next to us, even if it is just a smile. If only we would slow down. Take a moment to be filled with awe and wonder at the world around us. At the people around us. Take a moment to appreciate the gift we have been given and revel in each and every moment.

Just Do It.

Just do it.

This is a brand slogan that I grew up with and is synonymous with big name celebrities like Michael Jordan and Serena Williams. It has been coined as a cliche motivational quip – ‘Just Do It’.

At times it would seem like using this phrase is totally unfeeling and harsh. The one being told to ‘JDI’ might come back with a variety of excuses, “But you don’t understand. This stops me, that makes me afraid, I don’t have time, I don’t have resources, I lack this…”

But there is great power in just getting on with it and doing it. There is never a perfect time in life to jump certain hurdles or do certain things. If you are waiting for all the stars to line up perfectly, you might be waiting an awfully long time.

And if you are waiting until you are no longer afraid, it may be even longer. If you are anything like me, there will always be an element of uncertainty and apprehension in certain zones of life, especially when trying something new and unchartered. But to let fear win, that is just not an option.

Life is here to be lived, not just to be survived. Adventure is there to be had, not just watched. Sport is to be played, not always spectated. Risks are there to take, not avoided.

Yes, there will be excuses that can be made. Yes, not everyone will like what you do or say. But they don’t have to. You just have to be true to yourself. Sometimes we have to suck it up and get over it.

I’m writing for myself just as much as anyone. I have been meaning to get this blog started for weeks (maybe months) now. And I keep making excuses as to why I haven’t done it. But if I’m honest, the only reason I keep delaying it is fear. And lets face it, fear of what people may say or think is no reason to not do something.

So, I’m getting over it and I’m just going to do it.

I have a dream to help people realise that they are superheros in the daily lives that they live. If you are anything like me, there are dreams and hopes of making a difference in the world. There are so many issues in the world that it would be wonderful to fix. There can be a temptation to think and say, ‘who am I?’, ‘how can I make a difference on a global scale?’. I’m not rolling in money, I don’t have a global influence or platform. I’m not Oprah Winfrey or Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or the Prime Minister/President of a country. No your not. But you are you. And You is what this world needs.

We make a difference on a global scale by making a difference in our immediate sphere. The direction of our suburbs, our cities, our nation and the world is influenced by your life and my life. Your life is vital to the people around you. They need you and you need them. And we all need each other to stand up and be superheros in our everyday lives. To smile at the person we walk by. To be nice to the barista making your coffee. To thank the teachers of our children. To buy a flower and give it to the mother struggling with her children in the shopping centre and let her know she’s doing great. To buy a jacket for the shivering homeless person you drive past every morning in the middle of winter. To think outside the box. To let the love inside you leak onto the people you meet.

So never mind the excuses. Put the fear aside and trust that you have it in you. You have been wonderfully made and created for now. You have something to give. So go on, Just Do It. Live with your knickers on the outside.

Love Hannah