There has been much dialog from yesterday’s blog. People trying to understand what a cairn is? Trying to understand what I really mean about “thoughtfully picked, and thoughtfully placed”.
Recently I went hiking with a friend and I passed a pile of rocks and I thought I could just reach down and stack the stones up and create an impressive instant cairn (like the above picture). No such luck, there was NO thought, just grab and stack, biggest first, but I did not thoughtfully place them, I just was in a hurry. Nothing worked, so I left the pile and kept on trucking. That experience reminded me of the thoughtfulness NEEDED to stack and BALANCE the stones. It needed some thought and I did not give it thought.
I had a wonderful breakfast with friends. Friends I’ve walked a long ways with. A friend in particular who has not only walked a long way but walked away. We see it all the time, people just disappear from the gym. Why? Because it takes alot of effort to get there, sustain there and keep going back when other parts of our world change. The great thing about movement is it can be done in so many ways, with just some thoughtful picking and placing.
I gently nudged my friends towards a workout that they could indeed handle. It was carefully picked and carefully placed in their lives exactly in the spot that their schedules would allow. Then I picked another day and time and then suggested a 3rd. Because they CAN. It was not, “just show up and DO something!!!!” It was, “come at THIS time, and do THIS for 20-30 mins” then go home. Come and do it again here and here. Some times it’s lowering the bar so we can begin stepping up and over all over again. Thankfully my words pushed em, and I did not have to get behind them and push! They’ve got it. I’m just back there giving it a chance to balance up, stone upon stone til it’s standing tall.
I guarantee a great deal of thought went into the building of the cairns in the picture above. They did not happen by accident but ON PURPOSE and they stand beautifully tall.
I watch people thoughtfully placing exercise in their lives, and slowly begin to stand tall.
