100 Days of Wonder – #40
What do you do to re-set? I am joining Piglet and the gang in the 100 Acre Wood. I know I should not be writing the story before all the characters are known or while we don’t know which of the unknowable number of worlds in the multiverse we will find ourselves in as things play out. But, as is perhaps normal for so many of us, I want to think through the infinite possibilities of everything that is going on so that I can be prepared. I was listening to the radio on my way back from campus today and there was a lot of speculation about the impact of the US election and I found myself wondering why that particular narrative and not a different one, why that ‘what if’ and not others. The same ‘what if’ narratives are playing out more locally in my world too and the different stories people tell themselves about what is happening can act as comfort blankets or as triggers for anxiety and stress. Over the last few days I have seen kindness and support where it really matters, I have seen bravery and people standing up for what’s right and I have seen many of us have each other’s back. I have seen other things too but I don’t want to engage with them right now. I want to believe in the good and I want to head off to the river where the gang was playing Poohsticks. I want to (if you’ll forgive the excursion to the more modern stories) play cricket with Eeyore. I want to be lectured by Owl, bounced by Tigger and I want to walk in the woods humming a silly tune with Piglet as we go check and see if Pooh has got thin enough to get unstuck from Rabbit’s house yet. This picture makes me believe I can do all that and as I have another random day off tomorrow, who is to say I can’t do exactly that. So if anyone is looking for me, I’m off to have tea with Kanga and Roo. The reality of our world will just have to wait a bit.
100 Days of Wonder – #39
The world feels heavy today. The world was already in unfathomable and senseless pain and today it feels like the world took a step in the wrong direction entirely. More locally the sector I work in is in real trouble and the only light at the end of the tunnel is a great big freight train full of poorly conceived metrics hurtling towards us. I can’t control any of it and I could construct a whole awful narrative but the story is not yet written and there is no point in second-guessing what might or might not happen. That being said, I couldn’t bring myself to share a photo from the US today. So here you have the Castle at Disneyland Paris on a grey September day in 2016. I am struggling to see the wonder and joy today. The world just feels heavy.
100 Days of Wonder – #38
I am very very grumpy about fireworks this evening so you’re not getting a fireworks picture – fitting though it would be for the English context anyway. I have been prompted in various ways recently to think about the stories we tell ourselves. Now I don’t need much to send my imagination off into all sorts of directions and sometimes that’s brilliant but sometimes it also means that I am quick to construct a narrative that is perhaps not helpful. I was thinking about exactly that as I set off for my run this afternoon. The initial story in my head was about how I am not very good at running, how I felt tired, how I was too full, how soup wasn’t great for running on, how I hadn’t drunk enough water and how it was probably all going to be awful. That all went through my mind in the first 4 minutes and I nearly turned round. Then I remembered that these things are all stories we tell ourself. It’s all in our head. If I can tell that story, I can also tell a different one and which one I believe is up to me really. So my story changed to one about privilege to have the flexibility to go out and run and make use of the daylight, about how running would wake me up or at least provide the physical tiredness to match the brain tiredness from work, how 30 second intervals were easy and most importantly about how I was a runner who belonged here just as much as all the speedy people who zoomed past me. I wasn’t really expecting it to have quite such as dramatic impact but it changed my run completely and I had 7 completely uneventful miles that were partly even really joyful. Then I ran out of light and got a bit scared of falling (just another story I tell myself though) so walked the remaining 2 miles home. I had fun even though I hadn’t been expecting actual fun, more type 2 fun..
So why the photo? Well, we stayed in Adventure Tower when we went to Disneyland in 2016 at the end of a pretty epic Californian road trip. I remember arriving and commenting on how fitting it was to be in Adventure Tower after our adventures just gone and our adventures to come. I remember us talking about the road trip and shaping our memories into our stories and I also remember being nudged to think about what sort of adventures might await and what stories I might tell about them. And somehow that stuck with me and I like the idea of starting each day in my own Adventure Tower, with adventures, small and large to be had, stories to be discovered and told and dreams to be chased and lived. So the photo is just a prompt to remind us all to embrace the adventure and tell our stories in ways that they help us find joy.
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