100 Days of Wonder – #20
In 2023, Kath and I celebrated our 20th anniversary. You can just see our Happily Ever After badges in the photo. We have the cute couple photos from our celebrations too but I really like this one because it sort of captures a sense of fun and silliness and because in many ways it is very us. I can’t really describe why but the photo captures our sense of adventure, our togetherness that doesn’t depend on us physically being in the same time and space constantly and our joint willingness to not take anything, least of all ourselves, too seriously. I can do what I do and be who I am because of her. Once you find your human, anything becomes possible, the rough times are much more survivable, the highs so much sweeter and the mundane, every-day boring stuff of life become the things that you look forward to, crave and seek shelter in. So, not that long ago in a galaxy not that far away we celebrated 20 years of being each other’s biggest fans, of championing each other and of supporting each other in making the world a better place – hopefully at least a little bit for other people but most certainly for each other.
100 Days of Wonder – #19
When I started this series of blog posts I put a number of pictures in a folder to use and each one I downloaded from the cloud had a purpose, a story I wanted to share. I can’t for the life of me remember why I downloaded this one though. It’s one in a series of photos of me and Kath in the Animal Kingdom in January 2023 eating churros and being silly. We were just having fun and got the giggles. Maybe the reason I downloaded the picture is simply because it made me laugh and think about some of those special moments – this one included, when you feel completely at ease, completely comfortable in who you are and so completely in sync with another person that everything feels completely right. So let’s not overthink the story here and just take the opportunity to stop and go back to a moment where everything felt right and enjoy that memory. Here’s to many more of them!
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.
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