Amazing women

Each year I support a charity by donating a little of my hard earned moulla.

And that is pretty much the extent of it- a few dollars after a short spurt of research and conscience appeased for 12 months.

But I could do more I know. Perhaps, like me you may be inspired by those doing that little bit more- well a lot more actually.

First example, Belinda.
B is completing a 200km walk over a 9 day period in March to raise money for the Palliative Care Unit at the Royal Children's Hospital. Hot on the heels of completing the Eureka Climb in November last year, B is at it again.

Second example, Linda.
After becoming a fitness dynamo, transforming her body to improve her own health and set a good example to her two boys, Linda is tackling the Oxfam Trailwalker in April. Linda's team will go for 48 hours walking for 100 kms from Wheelers Hill to Wesburn.

You are both an inspration, not just because you fit training in an already crammed schedule, but you are contributing something to this little world of ours.

Some mothers go and get a massage, drink a glass of chardonnay and buy a new dress- and who could blame them- but not these two ladies. They go out and conquer a mountain and raise money for charities- now that is multi-tasking!


If you too are inspired and in your small way would like to donate to the cause the details are below. Even if you don't know Linda or Belinda, I can assure you they will be grateful.

Belinda- http://rchfoundation.com.au/belinda_iatrou
Linda "Just Because"- http://trailwalker.oxfam.org.au/melbourne/teams/team/?team_id=11468

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."
William James

The Breath

I have been practising yoga off (regrettably) and on since I was 8.

It started watching my mum doing yoga in her bedroom before sleep.
I would go in to spend a few moments replicating the strange postures she went through in her ritual.
She explained to me that she had started yoga when pregnant to relieve the back pain.
For her it was more a physical therapy, there was no talk of the breath with each posture, it was simply a way to relieve the ache in her lower back.

I practise yoga, continue to come back to it, because it helps me to connect my mind, my breath and my body. And for a time during and after, these three parts are in harmony.

"As long as there is breath in the body, there is life.
When breath departs so too does life.
Therefore, regulate the breath."

The Hatha Yoga Pradipika

Cape Conran

 

There is possibly nothing better for me
than a walk
down the beach just before the sun sets.

Hidden Treasures

You may travel the same route everyday, but look in a different direction, and you may be rewarded.

Einstein on a bike!


 

Step on

This is guaranteed to get you up and dancing like a crazy.

The Happy Mondays Step On.

Well maybe that is just me but I did spend about oh, I don't know... 5 years of my life at Chasers Indie night dancing to this stuff- without the aid of substances people!!!

All night then morning!

In fact it was a hard choice of which song to choose from the 'Madchester' movement. The Charlatans The Only One I Know. The Stone Roses Fools Gold. Inspiral Carpets This is how it feels. Northside Take Five.

Thanks to all my Chasers friends for waiting for me to finish dancing well past bed time. I just loved the music and could not be removed from the dancefloor, the absence of anyone I knew to dance with was not an impediment.

Have a little dance before bedtime. Well it is Monday after all.

Longing for the higher altitudes

Because I am longing for the mountains I go to Rene Daumal for this week's inspiration.

There is one degree of separation between Rene and myself, he died on the same day I was born, 28 years before. He was a writer and poet, and I think in this short passage gives the best explanation of why someone might go through such discomfort to climb a mountain.

"You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again.
So why bother in the first place?
Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above.
One climbs, one sees.
One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen.
There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up.
When one can no longer see, one can at least still know."

Rene Daumal, March 1908 - May 1944

Climbing Kalapatar (5545m), view of Everest Base Camp middle left, 

with Khumbu Icefall snaking to the right

Climate watch

SH 131, Colorado USA

I have always been fascinated by the weather.

As a child, like all my age, I was bored silly by the news but then the weather would come on and I would sit up studying the synoptic chart trying to understand how this would affect my part of the world. How close were the isobars to one another? How did land masses affect the front? And the biggest question- would we get a storm tomorrow?

Storms are incredibly exciting events for me. Not the petrifying extreme events- who enjoys those?- more the sorts that produce incredible cloud formations, lightning, fast changes in temperature that come and go in a manner of hours. The sorts of storms where you can stand outside and be immersed without fear for personal safety.

When I was working in the mountains I would notice when the barometric pressure was dropping rapidly. I would feel the pressure change in my bones particularly in my knees. Madness I know but I knew a lot of snow was coming.

Sorry fair weather skiers, but being on skis on a snow day is the best place to be in the world. Low visibility, snow falling dreamily past your eye line, no noise. Mother nature's padded room!

These days the storms I am witness to are not quite so white, more grey. But lovely none the less. Next time there is a storm, get outside, stand in it, feel the energy in the air and let it invigorate you.