1st first - I have just been added to the Mumsnet Bloggers Network
Upside - ooh lovely, more people to read me
Downside - completely paralysingly...aware....of every...word...I.....type
2nd first - I did the 2 bit of that 5:2 diet thing yesterday, officially dieting and calorie counting for the first time ever, having chatted about it with a fabulous person the night before
Upside - drank lots of water and had something to talk funnily about in creative meetings that day at work
Downside - came home and frantically ate anything we had in the house, because I really should have planned how to survive on so little without fainting
3rd first - instead of juggling all the hats I wear in dizzying fashion all day every day, I let one of them take control and really get to sit on my head and filter through into my brain.
To explain:
I spent two days this week at the Business 4 Better conference, organised by UBM to connect charities and businesses at Olympia for workshops and seminars and conversations. Watch the video on this page B4B UK to learn more (and to see exactly why I am done with short hair - the Sheena Easton look is just not working for me anymore)
I don't about all of you but when do you get the time to just focus, properly focus on one thing? Without all the other lists and needs and wants pressing in for their share of your brain? I am one of those people who join the longest queue at the supermarket in order to be forced to stare into space with nothing to do.
So what an amazing gift it was to get to spend two days on a stand, next door to the wonderful Jeans4Genes http://www.jeansforgenesday.org girls, alongside some amazing parents of our Chromosome 18 kids, talking about, thinking of and planning for our charity. I have come away with plans and partnerships and ideas and hope and a massive sense of perspective of our tiny little place in this big wide world of need that exists out there.
I know that we parents of our Chromosome 18 kids will always find the time, space and fundraising wherewithall to continue to do what we do to educate the doctors, schools and friends to make the world an easier place for our kids.
But look at all these people who choose to work for the benefit of others. For people here in the UK and around the world, for the healthy and the sick, for the fortunate and the not, for animals and insects and the planet and us all. I was humbled and exhilarated and close to tears every time I had a moment to catch my breath.
So the Upside - heart swelling pride about everyone in that room, and on a personal level meeting and talking to 3 mums, a dad and two fantastic affected members of my rare and sprawling Ch18 gang who I didn't realise would affect me quite so much as they did.
And the Downside - feeling small and insignificant seeing just a glimpse of the size of the need that exists. But also, the realisation that my darling little boy who works so hard without knowing, to do all the things that other people take for granted, is going to have to keep doing so all his life with us to help him. Only one day I won't be there fundraising, fighting and campaigning alongside him anymore.
The failed dieting first allows me to look at myself honestly and understand the need to be healthy.
The two days at conference first makes me see that every second counts, in my reality and in life itself
And my potential new audience first and sitting down to write this post has provided the connections between them all.
You make a living by what you get and you make a life by what you give.
Let's get giving
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