100 Days of Wonder – #64
Happy First Sunday of Advent. Here’s one Christmas tree for you – it’s the Magic Kingdom Christmas tree to help you get into the mood. I’ve never actually been to Disney World over Christmas but on almost every January trip the Christmas decorations have still been up when we got there.
I like December and Advent Sundays in particular. I have long since stopped running around trying to see loads of people for pre Christmas drinks, food or coffee. Instead I try and consciously slow down. I try and savour the mornings with opening advent calendars and lingering in bed with that extra cuppa. I try to fill the house with music, lights and smells of making mince pies, hot chocolate or spiced hot drinks. And I try and make time for just being, enjoying time together and reflecting on a year coming to an end and adventures yet to come.
Seeing the Christmas tree at Disney when usually we have packed Christmas away at home is always a lovely extension of that with an additional dose of magic, wonder, joy and pixie dust. So I wish you all a lovely, calm December filled with love and laughter.
100 Days of Wonder – #63
Here I was, at the expo having picked up race bibs in 2016. At this point in my running life I had run a couple of half marathons and I think the longest training run might have been about 20 miles but I don’t actually remember, it might have been less. I had never run a marathon and I had certainly never attempted anything as insane as the Dopey Challenge. In 2019 I was slightly better prepared and knew what was coming. This time I know what’s coming but I am not prepared at all. Imposter Syndrome is real. I am the slowest I have ever been, I haven’t been consistent and today’s run was a bit of a nightmare so I am also way behind on distance and volume. So right now I don’t feel like a runner. But the thing that Disney running taught me is that I belong out there just as much as anyone else, that I too can do the impossible and that if you can dream it, you can bloody well have a good go at it. Do I know whether I can do Dopey 2025 – nope. Evidence suggests I may well struggle to get round the marathon in the time allowed but assuming I get round the half marathon in one piece and nothing seriously hurts, I will try. I look at 2016 me with awe. She was naive in terms of distance running, sure, but she was also determined and she never gave up. It never occurred to her that she might not finish. Today me feels less mentally strong. I now have experience of not finishing races or even not starting. I now know that that is an option and part of me wishes I didn’t. I want to be able to go into the Dopey Challenge with complete awe and wonder and without the somewhat dubious benefit of experience. I want the magic of not knowing and experiencing it all for the first time. But I do know, so all I can do is the trust the training that I have done and will still do, know that it will see me safely through the half marathon. Then I will need to channel all the determination, stubbornness and pixie dust I can to see if I can stay ahead of the balloon ladies (a group of women who start last and maintain the minimum pace required). And if I can’t, well then I’ll get a bus ride to the finish. I suppose there are worse things in life.
100 Days of Wonder – #62
Here’s the latest Lego build. We finished it today. Piglet looks pleased with it anyway. Most of our Lego is Disney or Starwars. It feels like we’ve been building Lego sets for as long as we’ve been going to Disney, it feels like they are somehow connected. But that’s not actually true. The first proper set we built was a Winnie-the-Pooh set that Kath bought us when we bought our flat in Birmingham. So we’ve only been doing this since 2021. I sometimes wonder if it would have helped me recover more quickly if I had discovered how calming and helpful it can be. Lego is great for headspace and for quieting a too busy brain and for me Disney adds another layer of happy place magic.
I like this build because it mixes old Disney with new Disney. It looks back but isn’t stuck in the past. It celebrates the new (er) without throwing out the classics. Yes, yes I know, it’s just Lego. My brain is very overthink-y today so obviously I’m reading everything into everything. And building this set as well as just chatting about the upcoming trip has made me think about the importance of being able to celebrate new things and embrace change but without just dismissing what came before. I guess the point is a similar one I made when writing about traditions previously. I think it’s about enjoying the familiar as a place from which to explore the new rather than being permanently stuck in the familiar.
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