Butterflies Emerging From Their Chrysalis Learning How To Fly
Today we left our home in Eype.
It takes very little time to pack up all that we own again and pile it into the back of 'Felicity Fiat' - our car for our duration in the UK - and 'leave without a trace'
I had a Skype session with a client booked for 10am and as I had decided today was to be a rest day from running, I went down to the beach for a final walk along the coast before my Skype call...
I walked down the lane past the Epye Mouth Country Hotel where Anadi and I had enjoyed and a meal last night with Nick, my brother in law, and Jess my fourteen year old neice.
Rosy, my sister, had already gone to Stoke with Jamie my eighteen year old nephew for the British Championships. Jamie is an Acrobatic gymnast; but Jess had a netball match today and so she and Nick were travelling up later on...
We had a lovely evening together and talked about sport and performance, in particular about how to relax and perform to your best when it really matters, by getting to a place of knowing it doesn't matter at all...when it does!
Nick and I have known one another for over thirty years...
He and Nigel, my husband then, were at college together; Nick and he were both top class athletes and Nick represented England in the world junior X country championships.
Nick came to stay with Nige and I one summer thirty two years ago and met Rosy my sister... The rest is history!
Nick and I ran together a lot 'in those days' and enjoyed many conversations such as we had last night.
Back then, our conversations took place on twenty mile runs and fartlek sessions around the fields at Bath university, where now there is an incredible sports complex....
Nick now trains on a concept 2 rowing machine rather than run, as he has some chronic injuries.
He and Rosy have a room in their home that is turned into a gym and Rosy also trains on the concept 2 as part of her programme for rowing competitively on the water...
And so we picked up our exploration, our dialogue that has continued over the years... How to 'get out of the way of ourself and perform as if it means nothing when it means everything...'
I reached the beach this morning and walked along the empty shore, I could see a family having a breakfast picnic at one end, the temperature was very mild, with the sun was filtering through the clouds shedding a magical light on this incredible Jurassic coastline....
We are staying in Brighton tonight, for me to 'not run the Brighton 10k' in the morning!
I had hoped I would be running, so booked our 'home' there for the night before Achilles said 'no'!
I am writing in the car, having stopped en route to see my cousin Carol and her husband Ian.
Carol and I grew up together and share many many childhood memories.
We haven't seen one another for ten years and have in the past few years delightfully reconnected through Facebook!
Her sister Jen came along too and then one of her sons Stephen arrived home.... We spent a lovely afternoon together enjoying Carol's delicious soup and homemade cake, sharing our experiences of the past years and ourselves with one another ....
Anadi and I told them of our process over the past year to become nomads, and that now we feel we are 'trekking into the unknown...'
Carol said...
'It is like the process you have been through is one of the butterflies emerging from their chrysalis and now you are learning how to fly...'
