100 Days of Wonder – #21
Maleficent. In dragon form. She’s spectacular. The first time I saw her I just stared. I was actually speechless. The engineering, the steam punk beauty, the heat of her fire breath and the way she utterly and completely commands attention – awesome. Then, in 2016 and 2019, I got to run past her in a backlot on the marathon course and get even closer. Mind blown.
I was looking for a quote and there are loads saying something along the lines of ‘Evil Queens are just Princesses that weren’t rescued’ and that’s just nonsense. Princesses don’t need rescuing! They rescue themselves and they certainly don’t turn evil because Prince Charming didn’t arrive on time. I prefer the idea of villains just being heroes whose stories haven’t been told. That I get. Although I do think some villains in our stories are just villains. I’ve had a few in mine that however I try and position it and re-tell it from their perspective, I can’t see them anywhere near hero like. But I can also see that in their own stories, they’re probably not villains. In fact maybe I am. Because how we think of ourselves and others is shaped by our stories and how we choose to tell them. All we can do is try and tell them with empathy and kindness but also with a firmness that allows us to stay in control of our own narrative. We need to keep the power to tell our stories and allow others to tell theirs. Don’t let your wings be stolen from you!
100 Days of Wonder – #18
It’s about time we had a me and Piglet picture. Did you know I am a scaredy-cat? I will worry about lots of things and I get anxious about silly things and in this big and crazy world I often feel small and insignificant and powerless. I’m scared of making wrong decisions at work and in life, sometimes I am so terrified of running down a steep hill that I stop at the top and cry. Some of it is rational and some if it isn’t. I’m not brave, or rather I have a limited amount of brave to go round and given that most things scare me in some way, I have limited capacity to do the things that push me out of my comfort zone. Like Piglet says, it can be hard to be brave when you are a very small animal. So many quotes about love and friendship and life in general are given to Pooh Bear but I like Piglet more. Piglet is kind and shy and braver than he knows and he does the right thing even when he’s scared. He doesn’t make rash decisions and he listens. We need to be more like Piglet. Piglet also embodies a contradiction I feel a lot of affinity with because Piglet is brave and so often out of his comfort zone. I get that. I like change, I am not risk averse, I like adventures and I do things that scare me all the time. I get irritated with myself if I spend too much time in my comfort zone (which is really just the under a blanket on my sofa with a cat or 4, a good book or film and ridiculous amounts of cheese) so I chase the impossible, I run down the hills, I give papers at conferences, I travel, I swim in the ocean, I go somewhere people-y, I hike up the hills and climb the bridges, I teach rooms full of students and even go on a rollercoaster in the dark that goes upside down (more on that another time maybe – because – aaaaaaargh). The point is, while I often feel like I am running out of brave and have to fight the urge to retreat and hide, we are always so so so much braver than we think and what the world needs right now is bravery in speaking out, in not looking away, in taking action, in speaking truth to power.
100 Days of Wonder – #17
Special trainers deserve special retirements. It’s not every pair that carried me through a marathon… the memories, the sweat, the swearing. These trainers were there for all of it. And so they will forever roam the Magic Kingdom. Ok so obviously I know that’s not actually what happens to them but there is something really lovely about the thought and the ritual. I like little rituals and traditions. I like how they mark things, create moments of reflection, make me smile and mark the passage of time in a positive way. I like my ‘new academic year notebook’, usually supported by a ‘new calendar year notebook’ and a ‘Easter notebook’ because one is never going to be enough. I like the end of term email and file sorting to mark the end of one term and the start of the next. I like our own traditions that have developed over time that are ours, just things we do – like strolling across to the Magic Kingdom on our arrival evening, having dinner at the California Grill on our last night and lunch at the Crystal Palace before we fly home.
I like our traditional Christmas morning run, I like the pumpkin carving (coming up soon), mince pie baking, Christmas card writing and our 4 advent candles not in a circle but in a line. I like how our traditions have mixed and also how they have evolved. I remember our runs at Bolton Abbey followed by breakfast fondly, a lovely weekend ritual for a long time until the food options changed. I love our monthly cheese box and the way we curl up in front of the TV with our cheese board and fizzy apple juice once a month. I like our first coffee of the morning being one we have together often sitting in bed. I like our seasonal lego to build and rebuild year after year. Some of the rituals inspire a sense of possibility -new notebooks, candles to be lit, advent calendars to be opened (every other day because we share) – and others invite memories – do you remember last year when we build the Haunted Mansion… and others still, coffee in bed, cheese boards, are just about taking the time to be together.
While most trainers are either binned or passed on through various charities, depending on the state of them, the special ones started a new ritual, a runDisney ritual. It allows me to mentally close off that marathon, that training cycle and bank it. I can look forward to the next challenge and all the possibilities that might bring and I create memories – those rainbow laces could tell a story or two. I like it, I’ll keep it going: A shoe selfie in the Magic Kingdom and then the trainers are ‘retired’ at the Contemporary resort so they, and a little bit of me, will always be roaming the most magical place on earth.
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