Words of wisdom from an old time backpacker?

Apologies for the delay this week – I blame it wholeheartedly on the bloke on the next mat to mine in my yoga class who made the shoulder stand look easy and the extension of the shoulder stand (where your legs bend right over your head and torso and your toes touch the ground) even easier. Despite or maybe because of the fact that I couldn’t breathe properly at this point (the combined mass of my chest and stomach being squashed into my face) I didn’t notice that I’d done my back in. I spent yesterday at the osteopaths.

I should really report on the big thing I was waiting for (in my post a couple of weeks ago) which was some news about a funding proposal Children Unite had submitted. However, it was rather vague news, it wasn’t a no to the bid but it wasn’t a yes either! We need to re-think the project, think bigger and more long-term about it and re-submit. But because the answer wasn’t an outright ‘yes’ I panicked and have been working on a fundraising strategy ever since. In fact I’ve been tinkering with all the plans I’ve made – strategic plan, fundraising plan, 3 month work plan, colour coding them and turning them into tables with tick boxes I can tick off! I’m learning to be patient, that there are no quick wins.

On a separate note, a friend and I were talking about ‘the best days of our lives', hers was her time at college, mine was the two years I spent travelling and working around the world. What I valued more than anything about my travelling time was the freedom and the challenge of doing new things. The conversation made me wonder if I would look back on my time now – setting up Children Unite - as the best time of my life. It doesn’t feel like it at the moment! But the more I think about it the more similarities I find. I didn’t have a plan when I was travelling – I bought one way tickets and went where the wind took me. I did everything on the cheap, took up every free offer and learned to trust my instincts not my prejudices. Also I was quite miserable a lot of the time (I am English after all), so although I count it as the best time of my life this wasn’t because I was deliriously happy. I think it was because I did some things I thought I’d never have the guts to do, I challenged myself and learned a lot.

So, to bring this back to my current predicament I am left wondering if I am in a similar place now – facing a big adventure, doing everything on the cheap (that hasn’t changed I have to admit)?  I do have a plan now, I have lots of plans! But they’re a bit useless at the moment, they change daily so I’ve decided not to tinker with them anymore and not to panic, to embrace the adventure and trust my instincts. So, yes, I think it helps me to think of setting up Children Unite as a big road triip. And as I’m an old time backpacker I hope I can learn from the fact that I’ve been here before and, despite being miserable some of the time, I know that it worked out alright, in fact it worked out brilliantly.