featuring #IAMWHOLE
As a teenager, I was a recluse. I read – a lot, played Atari on my brand new home computer (do you remember those two-dimensional computer games that would take an hour to load up, once a cassette would be inserted into the separate player?).
I enjoyed music. I methodically listened to my dad’s entire record collection and later on played some of those pieces (badly) on our upright piano.
I also loved to walk and talk.
I would walk around stunning turn-of-century architecture in the centre of Bucharest, while chatting with my best friend. We would cover anything and nothing, from Schopenhauer to what you shouldn’t wear at the end-of-year ball which we might not go to anyway, until dark overcame the streets and we had to rush home.
When not in Bucharest, I would still walk, up and down Grandma’s garden, picking the grapes off the vines and imagining fantastic characters with my sister. We still remember each of their names, but are both too embarrassed to admit the influences from American soap operas.
I then grew up and moved away (to England). I walked with my new friend. Discovered the colourfulness of Brighton. Wondered at the Dickensian roofs (yes, did you know that Brighton from above looks like the cover of A Tale of Two Cities?).
One evening, at a university event which I might tell you about another time, I saw my husband’s head towering above other heads. That, and his embarrassing hair style, gave me enough reason to start a conversation.
We met again, a few days later, and shared soggy sandwiches and canned grapefruit. That’s when I played the only piece I could still remember on the University piano and that is when he said he fell in love.
Truth be told, my own falling in love with him was a gradual process. It was months of walking and talking the whole length of the South Downs and some more, in an unprecedented attempt of old-fashioned courting on his behalf. We walked and talked. We talked and we walked.
Many years on, we still enjoy this one thing over anything else: we love to walk and talk.
WHOLE HOUR
Why am I telling you this? Because this is exactly what I intend to do on the 10th of October, from 12pm-1pm. I shall take time off all devices and work commitments, I will place the baby in a buggy and will walk over the small bit of North Downs that surrounds us. I will attempt to walk and talk, but I accept the baby might choose snoozing instead.
I am doing this as part of @wholeorg’s #WHOLEHOUR initiative.
The #iamwhole project encourage us that next Wednesday, for World Mental Health Day, for a whole hour, we take time away and enjoy doing something solely for ourselves and our mental health wellbeing. @Wholeorg are an amazing space which I have written about in the past here. They have recently launched a podcast and are doing simply amazing stuff on mental health awareness campaigning. Check them out!
