Started out in January with Practice as my One Little Word (word for the year) and I am documenting how I am putting into practice keeping fit this year. Had the first 2 weeks of January at home, so was able to get lots of walking and a couple of rounds of golf in. I have been making the most of the local walking areas around Karaka and Papakura, walking across to Pararekau Island and around the Pahurehure Inlet in Papakura. It is lovely to find some shady spots in the trees along the way and to enjoy smelling the forest and listening to the birds – when I take my headphones off for a bit while I walk. Golf was at Omaha, Paeroa and Pakuranga.
Last year while prepping for the Auckland half marathon, I started trying to find walks around our area that would keep me energised, and have now got some great routes which use the Southern Pathway alongside the motorway to feed into Conifer Grove in Takanini and Pahurehure in Papakura. It has been fun just taking whatever direction I feel like without worrying about the distance. Each walk has some beautiful little pockets of greenery and coastal area along the Estuary and Harbour and adding these to the walks around Karaka Harbourside has kept me motivated.
For one walk I met up with a friend and we did a nice walk around Mangere and Ambury Palk along the coastline. An easy pace, but we walked and talked for around 10 kilometeres, before stopping for a lovely smoothie to finish. So lucky to have such a beautiful country to walk in.
After getting back to work on the 13th of January, I was worried my walking would fall over, but documenting my walking has kept me motivated. I’m choosing to record steps per day, and also the length of any walk that is continuous and over 2 kilometres. I’m keeping these details in a travellers notebook, and while it is not necessarily pretty or sexy it is a record and I know that this is how I keen see my progress over time. My pace has definitely sped up since last year when I was taking around 12 minutes to walk one kilometre, I have now improved to take between 10 – 11 minutes per kilometre comfortably and while talking. Suprisingly, I have even started to feel like doing a slow jog – it’s been some time since that felt within reach.
I have started out documenting my Word in a 6 x 8 album but mixing up using traditional scrapbooking, pocket pages and some Canva pages. As part of my practice I am trying to let go of needing to have a theme in my album for the year. My quote for the year is “You are what you do, not what you say you will do”.
Alongside the Album I am keeping a journal/commonplace book and a Travellers Notebook. The idea of the journal is a place for me to make notes – both for the OLW project, my Get Messy project and writing about my daily life. The Travellers notebook I want to use to record how I am using the word practice and challenges that I have set for 2025. It all feels ambitious – but I am hoping that by only joining OLW and Get Messy, I will be more consistent with those instead of starting lots of projects. I have been practicing using watercolour pencils and sketching in my journal and giving myself permission to not worry about what it looks like. Part of practice is learning and knowing that you need to learn to get better – who knows by the end of the year I may be happy with my drawing?
This month – I have finished 3 books and made a start of 3 more. My target of 52 is tough, but is equal to one per week. Last year I finished 43, I think if I watch a little less Korean Drama in the evenings I should hit the 52 this year. My 3 finished books were all novels and my favourite so far was “In a Thousand Different Ways” by Cecilia Ahern. The books I have started for this month include ‘Talking to Strangers’ by Malcolm Gladwell, ‘The Art of Practice’ by Peter Hollins and another Cecila Ahern novel ‘The Year I met you’. I can’t help feeling I have read this one before but it’s not on my list and hasn’t been made into a movie as far as I can see. As I can’t remember the ending I will keep reading anyway. One of the reasons I use Goodreads to log my books is this very problem, that I sometimes forget what I have read….
That’s a January update done. February is starting out with a barrage of Disability work with a new Cabinet Paper being released about the UNCRPD recommendations and advice that work will now commence on the new Disability Strategy. There will be some reading associated with that, so for now I will keep my recreational reading light.
Take care
Cherie x
Yellow Azalea 