So today is Easter Day and it is colder than Christmas Day! We met our friend Jacqui and her two daughters for a walk in the woods this morning. We had 6 dogs between us. Nothing like hanging out with a bunch of hounds to remind you to live in the moment and find joy in everything!!
We had a visit last weekend from Ruth and Richard who brought hot sunshine from Suffolk as well as steaks from one of their cows, Radish, reared, slaughtered and butchered at Old Hall, the community where they live. Their lives there involve growing fruit and veg (they are personally responsible for producing 6000 onions each year!), keeping the wood-fired boiler going, cooking for about 30 people, milking, churning, digging, living closely with others....as well as going out to work!
They know exactly where their food comes from, who grew it, how the weather affected it, when it's fresh and how best to store it for the leaner months. They also have an 'up for grabs' table so when you no longer need something you see if someone else can make use of it rather than just chuck it out. They brought a rather splendid wig for Nick from this table in fact and in return Nick sent them away with her old ski boots which she won't use again but hopefully will be taken on snowy adventures by someone there!We also had a visit from my sister, Dawn who is back from Egypt for Easter. (Coincidentally she has a friend who lives at Old Hall too!) She brought turmeric soap and incense along with healing herbs from a doctor in the Sinai desert specially for recovery after chemotherapy. Imagine her life in Cairo if you can; hot, bustling, incessant hooting of car horns, occasional gunfire, poverty and opulence side by side, sand-storms on hot desert winds, the beautiful Khan el-Khalili where you can buy anything from jewellery to spices to tents in a crush of colour, scent and noise. The most densely populated city in the world is a wonderful place, ancient and intriguing but sadly tension can be felt there since the revolution and the community is divided, most recently by tragic bombings in the churches of coptic christians. A million miles from Old Hall. Or Exmoor.
Closer to home and yesterday I ran my 50th parkrun. For those of you that don't know, parkrun is a weekly, timed, free run held every Saturday at 9am in public parks, along seafronts, at National Trust properties or anywhere there's space to do it! There are hundreds of these events at exactly the same time every week, organised by volunteers, open to anyone who can run, jog, walk or stumble 3.1 miles. Yesterday well over 120,000 people took part in UK parkruns. There are many more worldwide. I love thinking about people I know doing this at the same time as me, I always think of my nephew, Dan for whom parkrun is like a religion. Getting to 50 is my first 'milestone' and I'll get a free t-shirt to mark the achievement. The next shirt comes after 100 runs and then it's a real slog until you get your 250 milestone shirt!! Sadly Nick wasn't able to run with me as she has in recent weeks due to the unexplained pain that continues in her hip. Our friends Di and Jon (and Elvis the dog) came and ran with me and Olive though, while Nick and the little dogs watched. Amazingly Nick managed 50 press ups on the beach afterwards to mark the occasion, joined by Jon (for most of them!) and Di and me (just for a few each!).
The parkrun community falls somewhere between that of Old Hall and Cairo!! Full of colour, overcrowded at times, bustling and crazy with occasional conflict and controversy but also a calm place, close to nature, nurturing the young, supporting the old, pushing buggies, wheelchairs, shouting encouragement. As a community it has the power to inspire, to challenge, to question and to empower. People have overcome incredible physical and emotional tragedies with the help of parkrun, sadly people have died doing it, others have had their lives saved by it. We might usually associate these emotions and experiences with close friends and family, our more tangible 'community' but that word has far-reaching possibilities and at tough times it's amazing where you can find solace and support. Through social media I have been in contact with a fellow parkrunner whose husband was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. After hearing this news she went to her local parkrun (I think in Liverpool) not sure whether she could face running with such a heavy burden. Half way round the course she began to cry and slowed down to walk, lost in thought. A stranger stopped to ask if she was OK and walked with her for a while, listening to her story until she felt able to carry on running. The following week her husband was well enough to run with her, spurred on by the support his wife received when she told this story online, and a week after that she felt inspired to sign up to her first half marathon which she is running to raise money for prostate cancer charities. It feels like we have a lot in common! The support she got from the widespread community of people who are brought together by a 5k run each week empowered her not only to keep going when she felt like stopping but then to go further than she has ever gone before!
So, however we define the various communities to which we belong, they can give us this power and inspiration, can help us do more or better or faster than we thought possible or just be there when we need a crowd to hide in or be embraced by. But sometimes the hardest thing is reaching out to ask for what we need, or accepting it when it is offered because it's often easier to steer clear of other people when we are at a low point, to close ourselves off from the world and try to deal with things alone. I am learning that this isn't the best way to process stuff and that friends don't mind a few tears and actually neither do strangers. And when things seem too hard to cope with it's a great feeling to be able to reach out and offer someone a hand when they need it, whether it's to listen to their story, run alongside them or help them plant their onions.
Now I've done 50 parkruns I will go along and volunteer, which I haven't done for a while. It's great fun, a different slant on the community and when you've done it 25 times they give you a purple milestone t-shirt! What's not to like?
Meanwhile Di and I are still training for our half marathon in aid of the Lymphoma Association and we'd be so grateful if you could spare a few quid for this cause. Di has many more miles under her belt than me, I've got some catching up to do!! Many thanks to our blog community!!
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/run-or-die
6000 onions. JP Donleavy wrote a book called The Onion Eaters. Might take them all summer to eat that lot. Lovely to have you back. Lots and lots of love
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