Just Do It

Just Do It - Inspirations from Everyday Occurrences

I remember as a child, having learned to swim and really wanting to be able to dive, rather than walk down the steps into the pool or jump in like girl. How many times did I stand on the side of the pool, thinking ‘today I’ll do it’? Many dozens at least, if not hundreds.

I am reminded of this just about every time I take a shower. When it comes time to lift up my foot to wash between my toes. I know full well that I can balance on one leg for long enough to achieve the desired effect, but if I hesitate for even a second, then I somehow have lost the necessary stability and find I need to use one hand to hold on and steady myself.

Not a big deal perhaps; not a bad idea to think better safe than sorry? (I’m told that more people than you would think are injured in shower accidents.) But as the years advance and I must accept decreasing physical and mental capabilities, I very much want to practice balance and control for as long into the future as possible. So this is genuinely a regular useful reminder that in many cases, one should 'Just Do It'!

Could Life Be Any Better

Life's Winning Ticket

If Yorkshire is such a great place, then why am I not there?

Born in Yorkshire used to mean two things to me: firstly, holding a winning ticket in life’s lottery. Secondly, being qualified (at least by birth) to play cricket for the only real county cricket club.
Now that anyone who is good enough at cricket does not need the birth qualification, I firmly believe that a little bit of magic has gone from Yorkshire County Cricket Club; hey hoe - I did not have a son, so this didn’t prove traumatic.

As for life’s winning lottery ticket: this is substantiated by the almost spiritual magic which can be experienced while walking the hills and moorlands of Calderdale and the surrounding areas. When you are attempting (successfully I might brag) to cover fifty (that is 50) miles of the Pennines in 24 hours, you need at least a little bit of spiritual magic, along with a number of other qualities I find it difficult to contemplate. Of course, once again, you do not need the birth qualification - but it certainly helps.

My real spiritual rude awakening came with the philosophical realisation just how many genuine winning tickets there are in this ‘lottery of life’. Just as many as are consciously chosen! No No limits. Sadly for many people, these winning tickets can’t be obtained using nothing but money.

Just how do I get this ticket, now I know that my status as a Yorkshireman is not the be all and end all?

That is my purpose in sharing my search for the answers to life’s persistent questions; with apologies to Garrison Keillor’s creation ‘Guy Noir’.

Could Life Be Any Better