Small boobs, big smiles

This is a blog not about me, but about an inspirational woman I once had the pleasure of working with, Jackie Scully.

Jackie shares my mantra of making the best of everyday; but that alone is not why I felt the need to write this - although the help she gave me when I was starting out work is worthy of a mention in its own right. This post is dedicated to Jackie because in the latest phase of her life, which tragically involves having been diagnosed stage 2, invasive lobular breast cancer, Jackie has not just been 'making the best of everyday', she's completely redefined the concept.

You need only read one post from her blog 'Small boobs, big smiles' to see what an incredibly inspiring woman she is. As well as providing practical advice to anyone else who has, or ever will suffer from the disease, she gives a touching account of her experiences, which in spite of the numerous challenges she's facing somehow always manage to draw a smile.

Jackie's ability to maintain positive and find happiness in the most unusual of places - there's not many people I know that having just had major surgery would be smiling away simply at the idea of hospital mash! - provides inspiration to us all.

So next time a problem comes along I for one, will be thinking of Jackie and her amazing ability to remain positive in the face of cancer, and I know it will help me find the strength to keep smiling too. So thank you Jackie for sharing your experiences - it can't have been easy - and for inspiring me, and I'm sure many others too! :-)

Readjusting to normal life

It was always going to be with a heavy heart that I had to return home from my travels. Put simply it's been difficult readjusting to normal life; a life which only a few weeks ago seemed a million miles away. But I don't see that as a bad thing. I mean after all, if I'd returned the same person as I'd left what would have been the point going in the first place?

So on my return to drowning England, and despite my fast fading tan, I'm determined to continue making the best of every day and to remember some important lessons I learnt whilst swanning about in the sun (yes, I did actually learn something other than the fact I like hot weather!)

I have learnt to slow down. Take it easy.

Before I left I was always rushing around at a hundred miles an hour, constantly on the move, constantly doing something. If I wasn't at work, I was socialising, if I wasn't socialising I was at the gym. What was the rush? Why was I running about like a headless chicken? Who knows.

I love being active and adventurous, but I now appreciate a bit of good old fashioned down time too. And if I have to wait, be it for a friend, in traffic, in life, what does it matter. A few minutes, hours, even weeks won't make a difference. Plus, there's always plenty of interesting things around us, which we so often overlook. I now see waiting as an opportunity to look and see what I would have otherwise missed.

I have learnt to let go of where I once was.

There are things, people, situations from my past that before I left I was struggling to let go of, that in all honesty if I could I would have turned back the clock and gone back to. Travelling to so many stunning places, so many that I fell in love with and grew attached to, and then having to leave them, taught me the power of letting go. I realised if I wanted to go to the next amazing destination I had to leave the one I was currently at behind - and what a great life lesson. We have to let go of where we were in order to get where we want to be. I can't turn back time and be back travelling again, and I accept that now. Whilst I'll always remember it with incredible fondness, I'm leaving my amazing adventure behind, so that I can move on to my next one - can't wait to find out what it'll be.

I have learnt it doesn't matter if you don't always have a plan.

Now, don't get me wrong I love a good plan. I plan at work, I make plans with my friends, I even planned a lot of our road trip, and I've always had a life plan. If you read my early blog posts you'll know last year I was starting to embrace the certainty of uncertainty and learning to live without a plan, but I think travelling has provided clarity on why. If you're always working to one end goal, what happens when you get there? A lot of people think when they get to the end of their plan, they'll be happy. But I've seen too many people (and marriages) finding once they get where they wanted to be, that something else is missing. Not always planning for the future, living in the now and embracing the new, for me is the only way to be truly happy.

Yes, it's good to have something to work towards (and I'm sure in time, I'll have some shape of life plan again) but don't defer happiness in favour of it. We are constantly changing, being shaped by the world around us, so I'm not too worried that I haven't decided who I want to be or where I want to go yet. Whilst travelling some of my favourite moments were those in which we embraced our freedom and decided to visit a place we hadn't already planned to visit, or to stay a bit longer at the places we wanted to stay, so why wouldn't that apply in the rest of my life? I'm going to become the person I end up becoming, and in the mean time I'm going to focus on enjoying today.