Gratitude Journal Day 10 – Connection

Today marked the second day back at school for Term Four which saw a slight increase in the workload from a face-to-face point of view due to recommencing of my bassoon students and being the first Concert Band rehearsal. While this does add an additional “busy” factor to my days, I am forever grateful for the opportunities that teaching music has provided to me – without it I wouldn’t be who or where I am.

Connection with students.
The first lessons back after a holiday for some music teachers can be a frustrating one due to having the knowledge that many students won’t have spent the consistent time practising over the holidays – even the most diligent can sometimes slip up. If we stop as adults and think about this, we’d realise that there are many adults who would fall into this same category of when routines change (such as holidays) habits can also be impacted. I find that this doesn’t bother me, rather I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to reconnect with my students, find out what they have done over the holidays, and encourage them to pick things back up and start working in partnership towards whatever goals they have.

Mentoring.
My philosophy of teaching is that I am not necessarily just teaching content, but rather life skills and providing an example of how to be a good person. Due to its nature of being either one-on-one or small group settings the instrumental teaching that I do provides me with a unique opportunity to be doing this. I am grateful for the opportunity to be able (hopefully) make a positive impact on the lives of the students that I teach by being a mentor to them. Hopefully I can inspire them musically, but even above that inspire them to develop excellence of character that will positively impact the word in which we all live.

Opportunity.
I am grateful for my school providing me the opportunity to continue to teach instrumentally. Due to the other duties that I fulfil throughout my day close look has needed to be paid to the number of contact hours that I can have. I am grateful to the leadership who have worked in supporting me and acknowledge the additional things I have done including learning new instruments to a professional standard to provide opportunities for students at school.

Gratitude Journal Day 9 – Calm

Today marked the return to school for the commencement of Term Four. I had already decided that this would be the ultimate test into whether I could keep routines and habits started during the holidays going – the next three weeks would be important for the mindfulness exercises, stretches, runnings, and looking for moments of gratitude and appreciation. All this inside the context of being a pastoral care leader in a school environment where you never know what could be coming next. Overall, I was amazed with the difference the habits made to the beginning of my day.

Connectedness.
The first thing that I find myself being grateful for today is the connectedness to community. I had several incredible conversations with colleagues today, but one stood out for me – the “excitedness” of one colleague when she asked whether it was true that they’d be joining Chaney House (the Pastoral House that I oversee) as a Tutor next year. their joy at knowing that they’d be coming into Chaney and working as a member of our team, the excitement and energy was amazing to share in and invigorating for me. I know that their excitement will flow over into providing amazing care for the boys in they are responsible for journeying with over their time in the Senior School. I a m grateful for colleagues so switched on and passionate about looking after our boys.

Stepping up and going beyond.
There are times that due to teaching being a vocation that teachers’ silliness to go the extra mile and step up can be overlooked. I was blown away today by another one of the pastoral staff in Chaney. They started with a new group today due to necessary staff changes because of someone taking another job opportunity. Not only were they willing to step up and take on this group (a commitment for the next two years) but the level of care they showed right from day one with these boys makes me grateful to know they are in good hands. I am grateful for being able to work with this colleague and can’t wait to see the continued growth in them as they pastorally care for this group of young men.

Parents taking the time to say thank you.
One of the jobs that I have in my role is organising some of the additional events for various year groups, this includes the Year 11 Mother and Son Dinner which is occurring later this month. I received a beautiful email of appreciation from a mum who has bought her tickets and looking forward to the evening with her son. The appreciation she showed in her words for all the staff at the school for putting on these additional events to partner with parents just made my day. The power of thanks and appreciation.

Gratitude Journal Day 8 – Reflection

It may seem a bit funny to title a diary entry “reflection” when really that’s what every journal entry, a reflection on what has happened throughout the last 24 hours. However, I really feel that this theme as the school holidays come to a close is an important one in itself that shouldn’t be missed.

School holidays at a close.
Today marked the last day of school holidays and I am grateful for this. Not because of the going back to school, but rather because the experiences that I have had over this time off has given me a chance to stop, look inward, reflect, and take action into how I want my life and, as a result, the impact I can have on those around me to be. This is especially as I start the next term.
I am grateful for my colleague and good friend John giving me a copy of “The Resilience Project” and me making the time to read it over the holidays – it really resonated and rekindled a number of thoughts I have regarding wellbeing and how to live well.

Growth and celebration.
I am grateful for my wife and her playing soccer this year. The example that this has set for our kids into it being important for both mum and dad to have things in their life which they love and enjoy and that we celebrate the successes of each family member. This culminated yesterday with her team winning the Cup in their division. It was against the odds with the team they were playing a division higher and having been undefeated the entire season. A test of character, resilience and discipline as they managed to win it on penalties after being one – nil down. I am so proud of the achievement and grateful she has gotten to experience this with her team mates.

Family conversation.
My kids at dinner time have now jumped on the gratitude band wagon themselves. They have started sharing the things they are grateful for every night when we gather. Tonight was a bit of changed version with every member needing to list the five things they were grateful for that occurred during the holidays. I feel like there’s already some wins happening there – now to keep it happening during school term when things get busy!

Gratitude Journal Day 7 – People

This post is the final post in a week’s worth of recording three things that I am grateful for from the last 24 hours. Already, there seems to be a theme arising on me really appreciating the people there are in my life, those that I get to live and experience life with. Today has been no exception to this.

Generosity.
I am grateful for the boundless layers of generosity that people have continued to show towards both me and my family. Recently, there have been two birthdays that we have celebrated inside the house. A couple of uncles who didn’t get to catch up with the the birthday celebrants on their day messaged and asked to come over to wish happy birthday and drop off some gifts. I had thought that the gifts would be just for one of the birthday celebrants, however when they arrived there was a wonderful card from one written for me (yes my birthday was mine) with a heartfelt message – and words can mean so much more than a gift at times. The other visitor also had a gift for me as well – both unexpected surprises. While these gifts were nice, it was more the time and desire to want to connect and say in their own ways “I appreciate you and you being in my life” which means more.

The love of children for uncles.
I am grateful that my kids get to grow up knowing and being able to connect with their extended family. This is a two way relationship though, as it only happens from having adults wanting to connect with kids where they are at and on their level. Today I got to see that in action in two different ways with two different uncles, both authentic and loving. How can I tell this is the case? Well it’s from the reactions of the kids, wanting to show them what is important to them to the adults and then the adults reciprocating by making time and being fully present in that moment. How often in today’s world these moments get missed – what a special opportunity to build relationships.

What I have loved best.
In the car on the way home from Mass we all shared what we have loved best from the holidays. There were lots of conversations around activities and experiences but then it was summed up best by one of the family members: “I just love that we all got to spend time together”.

I think that says it all, what is truly important in this world and as we live our lives interacting with those around us.

Gratitude Journal Day 6 – The people around me

Today’s gratitude journal again focuses on the people around me and the thought they continue to have towards me and my family.

Heartfelt Messages of Love.
I am blown away by the love people continue to poor out through messages of kindness. The authentic and loving words people send when thinking of others is something that I think we take for granted at times.

Gratitude at the dinner table.
We’ve been doing the whole “three things that we’re grateful for” and “one thing we’re looking forward to” around the dinner table throughout this week. I have loved hearing everyone’s reflections and the thoughts of things that we have to be grateful for.

Night swims at the local pool.
We took the family for night swim followed by apple pies on the way home. Such a simple small thing, but the delight in the faces while enjoying a late swim and then the enjoyment of apple pies = total win.

Gratitude Journal Day 5 – Dinner

Today has been a great day, and one that I am very grateful for having experienced. All of the things that I am highlighting today revolve around family and the blessings that they bring into my life.

Dinner time shenanigans.
My first moment of gratitude is for dinner tonight with the kids and having funny silly laughs. We were eating dinner and then randomly one of them started singing the alphabet song but with the letters jumbled up and the need to spot the difference. This game just got sillier and sillier with each turn a person had. The sheer joy and laughs that were had over something so random is a huge highlight for me, I am grateful to be able to share those moments with the kids.

The work done by my wife behind the scenes.
I am constantly blown away by the things that my wonderful “partner in crime” does behind the scenes. Firstly, she puts up with me, and secondly the care that she takes in preparing lovely meals for us to enjoy – even if she is going out. I learn a lot every day from the amazing things that she continues to do to look after our family.

Quality time.
I am fortunate with the job that I have. While I work hard throughout the term and there are many nights that I am away, late or need to work additional hours once home due to incidents that occur needing my attention I am fortunate to then have the time on holidays to spend with my family. I am aware that not everyone gets the benefit of the downtime that I do. I try to stay grateful for this time, cherishing it and the opportunity to be fully present in the now instead of distracted by things to come in the future. Today this looked as simple as having my eldest come up to me while walking through the shops and deciding to hold my hand while walking through the shopping centre, having a conversation with the youngest about what he’d enjoyed about today, or listening to a great riddle that the middle one has made up and so proud that no one could actually get it.

90 Day Running Challenge 2024 – Day One

The 2nd of October marks 90 days until the end of the year. Just as like last year, I have decided to treat these last 90 days as an additional running challenge for me to help in keeping myself accountable and break things down as I work towards larger goals. This goal for 2024 being to try and run 2024km in 2024.

I went into today’s run sitting at 1286km for the year, this being behind where I had hoped to be. This week has seen me make good progress having completed 2x 10km runs over the Monday and the Tuesday, Wednesday was a planned lighter day with 8.5km planned to be completed. Before running I have done the maths on what I need to run over this challenge to reach my year goal: I need to run 738km over the 90 days to make my goal. If I break this down into weeks (13 to go until the end of the year) it means needing to run just under 57km per week. This is a bit of a step up from my usual 53km a week during school terms, however my December can see me increase the kms if I go by last year’s efforts of 250km in December.

Today’s run had the added challenge of weather, there is an extreme weather warning in place for the Perth Metro Area today which meant I had to think about the best time to go. Looking at the weather, I decided it was an early start so was up at 4:45am to make my way to Lake Monger. I got started just after 5:00am and managed to get through the first 5.5km before the heavens opened ad the rain started to fall – I got absolutely soaked over the next 3km. I couldn’t help but love the experience, finishing my 8.5km drenched but also buzzing with such enthusiasm for how good the run was – how good is it to be able to do this sort of thing!

I won’t be posting everyday of the challenge, I find that too much of a burden. I will continue to give updates once a week or fortnight. Tomorrow will see me back to the 10km efforts with me looking at then doin a 12km to finish off the week on Friday. Let’s see how close I can get to that 2024km!

Gratitude Journal Day 4 – Abundance.

Today has been the fourth day of me trying to be conscious about finding things in my life to be grateful for. Today proved to be an easy one for many reasons, however I am going to focus on keeping to sharing only about three: Running in the rain; Family and friends; Impromptu moments with the kids.

Running in the rain.
Despite being one month into Spring, a severe weather warning was issued for today which included high level winds, possible thunder storms, hail, and lots of rain. I still wanted to get my run in first thing in the morning and knew in looking at the weather the best bet to avoid the worst of it would be an early start. I was up and going by 4:45am and made my way to Lake Monger where I planned on completing 8.5kms. When I started there was a bit of wind but no rain however, at the 5.5km mark (part way into my second lap) the rain descended and boy did it rain! I got so wet over the last 3kms!!! It might seem like a funny thing to be grateful for, but as I was running along I could help but smile and laugh with joy as the rain soaked me to my core. At around the 7.5km mark I couldn’t help but stretch out my arms as if in victory saying how much I love this! I was still buzzing when I got home so much so that it was difficult to go back to bed and pretend to be asleep for the kids to “wake me up” for a tradition we have in our house.

Well wishes from family and friends.
I had the opportunity to sit and reflect today on how good my life is currently – the number of blessings that I experience everyday. Many of these do have a common element – those that I get to live life with. A thoughtful, heartfelt message sent from someone wishing me well, a reminder that I do have people in my corner who know me and are willing to be invested in my life, appreciating the things that I do for them as well. I hope that in the times that come along that are challenging I can always stop and think about those people special and important in my life. I am who I am partly because of the relationships I have developed and cultivated. Life isn’t meant to be an island of isolation, but lived in relationship and community with others.

Impromptu conversations with kids.
I was sitting on the couch tonight, the kids having just finished dinner when one came and sat next to me and asked me the simplest question. The question was nothing that was ground breaking or impacting for the benefit of humanity, but in that moment knowing that I had noticed something that they had created and that their work has been noticed by me and is important them is something that I shouldn’t take for granted. I am grateful for the privilege to be able to be a Dad and the responsibility for loving them unconditionally and knowing that they love me unconditionally as well.

Gratitude Journal Day 3 – Time with loved ones

Today’s gratitude revolves around loved ones – particularly family and friends. Too often in life we don’t take time to stop and acknowledge those special to us, those that we do life with everyday and who make it worth living.

Hot chocolate, churros and beach walks.
My first moment of gratitude is getting the time to go out with my family today and enjoy a treat of hot chocolate, churros and a walk along the beach at Hillary’s Boat Harbour. This has become a little bit of a tradition in our family on holidays and one that I really cherish. The additional bonus today was the stunning weather, despite only being a month into Spring it really was turned on today in Perth with a stunning warm day in the high twenties.

Sharing moments of gratitude at dinner.
Tonight, I tried something different at dinner. Instead of asking the kids for one good thing and one challenging I asked them to think of three things they were grateful for. Love listening to their insights from the day and the reflection afterwards from one of the kids that we probably don’t take as much time as we should thinking of what to be grateful for because there’s always things to be grateful for when we stop and think, but we take it for granted. How true she is. I think I might try to make this more of a tradition each night for the kids.

Dinner with a good friend.
As I sit here writing this I am looking forward to being able to go out and have dinner with one of my closest and oldest friends. I haven’t had the chance to properly hang out and spend time for about six months so know I will have a great time. I am grateful for my wife supporting me in spending time with my friends as well as having friends who I can not see a lot of but always pick things up as if we have not been apart.

2024km in 2024 Running Challenge

2024 has seen me undertake a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) regarding my running – to run 2024km in the 2024 calendar year. I have been asked by many people why I am doing this, and in all honesty there is no specific reason other than to:

  • Set myself a goal of some sort to work towards.
  • Push and challenge myself.
  • It sounds really cool.

The challenge came to bear off the back of my 90 day challenge at the end of 2023 where I attempted to run 700km over the last 90 days of the year (2nd October – 31st of December). While I didn’t achieve the goal, only managing 580 odd kms, the efforts especially over December where I managed two run 250km made me think that it might be possible to really stretch myself in 2024 and see what happened.

I decided that the best way to achieve this goal, like any big goal, wass to break it down into smaller challenges / targets for me to try and achieve. I did this by setting myself the monthly challenge of running 200kms and then an slightly larger challenge of running between 400 – 500km over the course of a school term depending on the number of weeks of the term. To review the progress, I am going to break it down into reviewing these term challenges.

January:Summer Holidays.
I made the decision that I wanted to get off to a good start over the January period before school went back. Off the back off the good work in December, I knew that keeping the momentum going was important through building consistent habits around when I would run each day, early in the morning before it got hot, and the frequency of runs, keeping to my five runs a week like I would in the school term. I didn't quite manage the five times a week due to running several longer runs (+21 kms) but still managed to complete 17 over the course the month seeing me start off with running 233.4kms for January.

Term One: February – March.
The beginning of Term One saw me undertake three different challenges, my monthly 200kms required for both February and March and the larger Term Challenge which was set at 400kms for the term. Term One was a nine week event due to where Easter was falling, I figured that working towards the 400kms would give me a little bit of wiggle room for if I pulled up sore on a day. Term One went really well, I managed to complete 231.4km in 21 runs over the month of February with me committing to a running routine of 12km for Monday and Tuesday, 5 km for Wednesdays, and finishing with 12kms for Thursday and Fridays.
March was another successful effort, completing 219.8km over 20 runs with me managing to keep the same level of consistency in run lengths and frequency. I did manage one longer run of 21.47km on the March long weekend which, unbeknown to me at this time would prove to be the last extended run that I have completed this year, I will touch on the reasons later. The combined efforts of February and March saw me achieve the Term One goal of 400km, running 513.9km throughout Term One.

Term Two: April – July

Term Two saw me start with great enthusiasm for what was to come. I was making great progress towards my goals being up towards the 800km by the beginning of April, well on target. I decided that the goals and approach from Term One had worked so this would continue into Term Two – 200km expected per month as well as a larger medium goal, this time 500km for Term Two with it being an 11 week term. All manageable, that is until injury crept in which it did.
Interestingly, everyone I told about my challenge said I would get injured from over doing it, however it isn’t the running that cause me problems but rather me going back and playing field hockey. I decided it would be great to pick up the stick and play Masters Div 1 for the local club and I felt great during the game. That night and the next day, however, I could barely walk with it taking a few days before I could put weight back on my feet. Despite this April still saw me hit my target of 200km, coming in at 202.9km but I knew that something was wrong which resulted in me going to see a podiatrist to work out what was wrong with my feet.

The podiatrist suggested me go and have some scans and tests done as my symptoms were inconclusive as to whether it was plantar faciaiitis. I took some time off both playing hockey and running due to the pain levels I was experiencing plus work commitments which resulted in me having the first month this year where I did not reach my target of 200km, instead completing 160.3km. This downward trend continued throughout June, only completing 110.6km resulting in me falling short on the Term Two challenge only managing 401.3km rather than the hoped 500km.

Term Three: July – September
I was still in good spirits about making the overall goal of 2024km in 2024 despite the setbacks of Term Two. Heading into the Term Two holidays, I knew that I was still ahead of schedule and that if I could seep consistency in running, even if reduced in load, that I would make it due to the additional kms I banked early in the year. That was, until I tore my hamstring on the first weekend of the holidays playing hockey. Luckily, it wasn’t a bad tear and it only ended being three weeks of not being able to play, but that was another 150kms that I wouldn’t complete, and then when coming back I would have to gradually build back up which would cost me even more kms and eat away that surplus I had worked on. I decided to use this time to get my right foot sorted out, got the necessary scans and got diagnosed as having a tear in my plantar fascia. While this sounds really bad, it meant the all of a sudden I could have it treated and the rehabilitation start – lots of strapping, stretches, strengthening exercises, inserts for my shoes and new hockey shoes were all required. While I am still having some difficulty with this, everything is heading in the right direction as a commit to my regular twice daily routines and exercises that have been set up. The distance covered over Term Three was minimal which has now put a lot of pressure on me in the backend of the year. July saw me only complete 3 runs in total at 16.4km and 5 runs in August totalling 30.1km.

September has seen me start to be able to build some kms back into the legs. I still only managed to complete 72.9km for the month, however there are promising signs with me now having build up from only doing 5kms a day to increasing to 8kms for the first week of the Term Three holidays before now extending up to 10kms a day in week two of the break. My aim will be back to the routine I did in Term One come next week.

As I move into the remainder of the year I still have hope in achieving my goal. I currently sit at having completed 1,288km for the year which is behind where I wanted to be. However, I still believe that it is possible to complete the 2024km challenge with the time left. Tomorrow is the 2nd of October which will be the beginning of the 90 Day Challenge_2025 in which I will aim to run over 700km in the last 90 days of the year. I will break this down into both my monthly and term challenges (200km for the months of October, November, December, and 450km for Term 4 which is November and December).

I am already looking towards the final week of the challenge and the prospect that I may need to run my furthest distance ever on the last day to achieve the goal. Who knows, if I have 42.2km to go on 30th of December it may mean me needing to complete my first marathon distance to achieve the 2024km in 2024. Wouldn’t that be a blast if that was the case.