This week I want to talk about my second reason why I am going to walk the 480km of the Tasmanian Trail in March. This reason is very important to me because without Edna I would not be alive today to take on this challenge. My why #2 is: As a dedication to my mother who is so supportive and excited about my adventure. Her reasons for her excitement and support becomes clear in this weeks video Why #2.
I know for a fact that my mum would have lived life differently if circumstances had been a little different for her and she had the knowledge she has now (wisdom of age hay). She also lived in an era when looking after the children and domestic duties was the expected norm for women. Despite all of this she lived as adventurous as she could. In 1976 she inherited some money from her mother and made the decision to use it to take her youngest three children who still lived at home on a five and a half months journey. I was lucky enough to be one of these children being seventh in a tribe of eight. So with my father the five of us travelled in a Bedford camper van seeing many sites across the UK and Europe, visited family in England and a stop over in Israel on the flight home completed the journey. If it wasn’t for my mum’s adventurous spirit I would not have had this experience which is forever imbedded in my memory as one of my standout childhood experiences.
Another adventure my mum often talks about is when she cycled on a single speed pushbike from Tamworth to Sydney (NSW, Australia) with my father when she was twenty. She told me how hard it was on the second day to get back on the bike because she was so saddle sore, but after an hour she forgot the pain and enjoyed the rest of the ride. Recently mum told me a new part to the story. Her sister Dot met them on the Sydney side of Hawkesbury Hill and they had a drink of water with lemon in it. Never before has she has mentioned this, which made me realise that I need to keep listening to her stories even if I have heard them a hundred times before because you never know when you may discover a new part to the story that brings it more alive. She still recounts fond memories of this ride to this day wishes she had done more adventures like this throughout her life.
During her sixties my mum and dad sold almost everything they owned and bought a Toyota Coaster and fitted it out as a camper van. They spent the next six months driving around Australia seeing as much as they could. The story that mum recounts most from this experience was talking with other women in the social hub of campsites, the laundry. The majority of women she spoke to said how boring it was driving through the flat central deserts and plains of Australia. Their comments bewildered mum because she found beauty and interest every where she went. This is because she has an immense curiosity about life and things in the world. She will wonder why one type of tree grows in one area and another type of tree in the adjacent area. When driving through a cut out in the rock, where the road passes through, she will notice that one side of the rock is brown and the other side is grey and wonders why. Her heightened curiosity about every little thing around her leaves little room for boredom in her life.
So what can we learn from Edna?
What are the cost of doing something you dream about? Take and make the opportunities that will make you happy and satisfied in life. When you do you find the true value that life has to offer, its your inheritance.
Do you give up because it has become a little uncomfortable to follow your dream? Get on the bike again and push through the early stages and it will become easier each step (pedal) you take.
Are you bored in life? Become more curious about life and the things around you and find what interests you. Then remember to keep being curious for the rest of your life.
P.S. Edna says remember to JUST DO IT! Oh and be weird, it makes life much more interesting.
