I hope you are very well. My news is that I can finally, amazingly, walk on stilts free from ladders, hands etc! Here’s my compilation of learnings.

Things I have learnt about life by learning to walk on stilts (aka. Walking Tall through Life)

1 Keep centred, focus on the task whilst on stilts. Keep your centre of gravity low for stability. In life it helps to keep centred, it is stabilising too, and makes you have a clearer perspective on yourself and what is going on around you.

2 Move just your legs, not your whole body; a swaying torso compromises balance, and adds unnecessary effort. In life, focus on the required action and allow the remainder of yourself to support that.

3 It’s nice to hold someone’s hand but it’s really for mental reassurance. The real work is done in your own head and your own legs. Real life metaphor: Assistance is good and supports you with doing your own work.

4 Synchronise your arm movement with your leg movement. As in life, if things are integrated it all works better.

5 The stilts need to be taken care of; and attach the stilts really tightly so they don’t slide. As in life: work with good equipment, well maintained. Keeps you feeling safe and secure, thus able to concentrate on walking (living).

6 If at first you don’t get it, have a rest and try again with help. If you don’t get it that day come back another day. Keep coming back. Persistance is powerful.

7 A good teacher is worth a ton of guesses from not knowing. The kind teacher will keep gently pushing you along the process. They have seen people go through the stages you are going through more often than you have been through them! The good teacher is ahead of you on the learning path, but has doubled back to assist and encourage. As in life, there is great value in an experienced and patient teacher.

8 Keep hydrated but don’t drink free-standing till you are more accomplished. Hold the ladder at first cos when you throw your head back it will change your balance. In life, your aim is to improve, but for practicality sometimes you have to live within your abilities so you don’t crash!

9 Falling isn’t the end of the world. The earth is there to catch you. You still learn what you need to about falling even if somebody catches you. You don’t have to bruise your knees every time to learn your lessons. If you do get bruised arnica cream mitigates the damage. There is much learning and healing to be had from “failures”.

10 Fear keeps you safe. Fear makes you appreciate your achievement when you overcome it and master your task.

11 Keep your head up and look where you are going.

12 Advanced stilt walking and tricky stuff will come in good time! Life lessson: You are on your own personal timetable.

13 Enjoy the achievements of others and don’t compare yourself to others. The people who are ahead of you can teach you stuff and encourage and inspire you. They have their own timetables and obstacles. The people alongside you are your companions in the learning.

14 Even when you can’t do it yet, the act of trying is building up your muscles. Effort brings progress, even if not that all-obvious end point yet.

Be Brave and Take Care with stilt walking. life and all your endeavours,
Meg

Hello Dear Ones,

I have been, and am, thinking about walking. This has been brought on by more attempts at walking on stilts.

When I did the “learn how” bit (about 3 months ago) I got the idea at first but then I kind of lost my nerve. Now I am going to short practise sessions to try to build ability/confidence. In between I have been thinking about walking.

I guess at one point in life I could crawl only, not walk (I don’t consciously remember this!) The lure of walking must have been strong enough to get me up into the walking plane. Scary, yet exciting. The call of the 3rd dimension. Now, if I trust the stilts (I do, I put them on nice and tight), and I can do the walking action (with the higher knee lifting), then it should be a mental exercise to be able to walk among the higher air. There just seems so much space around to fall into. What will call me as an adult? Conquering the skill, conquering the fear?
And why do I not have those falling fears on the trapeze? Oh, the gravity of gravity.

Maybe since it is night-time here, I will walk the web instead and see where I could buy me a pair of stilts whilst remaining comfortably seated.

Will keep you posted,
Take care!
Meg

How awesome that breathing fire is a learnable skill!
The first session I had 3 goes. The first one was not much. I went on a bit long for the middle one, so it came back at me a little. The last one apparently looked pretty good.
It has been videod but I have yet to see that. One has no sense of how it’s looking when one is doing it (I may have shut my eyes too). When the flame came back at me I just felt a little heat, apparently I was on fire a tiny bit and I subsequently discovered the left half of the peachy fuzz has been singed off my face – wondered what that smell was that wasn’t going away! The second session was good too, with a duo Fire Ball Spit as finale.

The FunRun. It’s the City/Bay Fun Run, but I do the half. Kmart/Bay doesn’t quite have the same ring really! I like the sound of hundreds of other shoes along with my own going “plap plap” softly, rhythmically on the pavement. I like the physical process unfolding: the warm up (first k), then getting into the groove, and then the numb-legged sprint at the finish line. I also like the sense of camraderie intrinsic to the community-event-ness  of the occasion. I could let you know my time after Tuesday if you like. I will even admit to being a  hoarder of tiny safety-pins (I collect them during the year to pin the four corners of the race number to my t-shirt).

Have a good start to the week, I wish you well,
Meg

I just read a beautiful little free eBook: A Human’s Guide to Freelance Living. There are TONS of short (parrot-free) memorable quotes; here’s a nice clear warning, on not worrying about competitors:

You can only follow someone so long. Then they stop suddenly and you run into them,
pushing your nose up into your brain and killing you.

Good one, Charlie Pabst! This eBook is good life information for all.

I did my larrrrrrst pre-FunRun-run today, and tried to run a bit farrrrster than usual. Tomorrow a big bike  ride (cross training), then the 6k (3.73miles) FunRun is on Sunday, nearly down to the ocean. Wish me luck!

And I think I just ordered a unicycle on-line. (Not completely sure that the payment worked…we’ll see). Should be fun balancing on the deck of the ship.

Didn’t see the ducklings this morning. They must be grown-up enough to venture further afield than the pond. Wow, already!

Have a good weekend both landlubbers and seafolk,
Meg/Calico Bess Bonney

First unicycle class on Monday night…

Ducklings swimming (at appropriate pace) and growing (quickly).

Enjoy your day,
Meg

Hope you are having a good week.

We love Magpie

This morning on my walk I was thinking about our georgeous cat Magpie. She had at least three lovely qualities that I feel I would like to aspire to:

1 Loving. She was understanding too, somehow.

2 Nimble. The lightness of a cat’s leap. Almost flight.

3 Smart. She could open an unlatched door. Other cats I have known haven’t figured out how to get their paw around the edge of the door. (Another of our much loved cats hasn’t even figured out which side the door opens, and is frequently seen gazing in anticipation at the hinge side!) Also see Loving, Understanding above.

In circus training mini-news: I am a little closer to a free-standing hand-stand, and a little closer to a cartwheel. I seem to be getting worse and worse on the stilts, however! (Perhaps it is just exhaustion).

Take care,
Meg