Is the Pen Mightier than the Spade?

“Time is relative. An hour sitting with a pretty girl on a park bench passes like a minute, but a minute sitting on a hot stove seems like an hour.”

Once again, I am in complete agreement with the great Albert Einstein, although I would make the following amendment,  ‘An hour sitting with an engaging man on a mountain side passes like a minute …’

And that would explain why the last year or two has passed by so very quickly.  It has been good.  Very good in fact.  So good I haven’t managed to allocate any of my time to sharing aspects of it here as I used to do.

But I am endeavouring to change all that. I pledge to spend less time contributing to the surface froth of social media and to log (or blog) my musings here.

I am going to try to condense the last couple of years into a nut shell in order to provide a platform to step forward from but it will be a fairly big nut shell – more coco than hazel!

Last year I became the first, and still the only, (cue Chesney Hawkes- The One and Only) person to run the width of Wales barefoot.  It was a personal challenge rather than a publicity stunt or means of raising money.  I have done enough of both of those in the past. Doing it purely for myself and my own growth meant that the motivation had to come from within, not from a public promise or pledge.

I achieved my goal, and although it wasn’t done for anyone else, it was nonetheless achieved thanks to the help of many others.  I will always be grateful to them.  To keep this ‘nutshell’ manageable, more details of the run, including training details and supporters can be found at www.allbuttshoes.com

Or of course in Barefoot and Before, the autobiography I have just published as a result of completing the run.

The purpose of dedicating time and energy to producing a book of this nature is to inspire and motivate.  I have been incredibly blessed to have been motivated and inspired by some of the most amazing people – most of which have very little idea of their magnificence or the difference they have made to my life and the life of others.  If I can manage to provide a fraction of the inspiration they have , then it will have made all the sleepless nights, doubts, fears and deliberation worthwhile.  And that is also the reason for returning to my website; to remind you of things like if you are dealing with ‘shadows’, then that means there is light too; nothing – no matter how good or how bad – will last forever, and that a day above ground is in fact a great day.

So there has been that, and lots of public speaking, and lots of writing freelance articles and a bit of TV work, and radio, and of course lots of gardening and looking after my bees, chickens and pigs, and Yogi walks, and a little romance and lots of other things.  I think that has filled the nutshell.

It has been a time of increased awareness and acceptance.  To recognise the things that serve me and those that don’t and to have the courage to release the latter.  To dis-engage when appropriate.

I have learned that it pays to ask. It also pays to listen.  And it pays to give gratitude.

I have also learned that life is too short to wait, burning bridges make great fires and the best is yet to come.