My dad used to say it so fast and angrily that us three daughters heard it as ‘do that’ – and we used to snicker as we went upstairs to our rooms. But maybe there is something in it. My wise old dad. Instead of saying don’t, say do.
As I went jogging the other day, at 10.30am (danger time!), temps of 30 degrees, a bright blazing sun, I heard the nay sayers in my head “don’t go now it’s too hot, don’t go now you’ll get burnt, don’t go too fast”…but as I was running I felt the endorphins kick in and I patted myself on my sweaty back and thought:
“do go now, because you can”, “do go now, you can cool off afterwards”, “do go now, just put more sunscreen on”, “do run, run well, run slow and steady”.
No negatives here! And I felt amazing. I really felt in that moment that anything is possible. There are often many many reasons not to do something, but there are also many reasons to. Just flip them. Don’t think about the past, the future, the what if’s, just give it a go! Be in the moment, live for now.
This thinking took me to the beach later in the day with my son. We found a car space on a busy day, we put on more sunscreen, the red flag was flying so we built sandcastles instead of paddling in the ocean. We adapted, we made a moment. We were.
Stripes & trees x
Stripes & Trees 