#31: Reflections from the shore

Nairn beach, 8:57. A rising tide, with still over an hour to go the water level is already where it was this time yesterday, high up the beach. Tide tables say the height will be 4.3 metres but no waves are crashing against the prom today. The Firth gently moves, reminding me of Farrow & Ball grey, much like the sky.  Just two boats out on the water, parked outside the entrance to Cromarty firth across the way.  Beyond the boats a patch of blue sky above the Black isle. Quiet. Even the gulls are quiet this morning.  I think I will sit for a while. Pied wagtail bouncing close by my bench, joyous little thing.

#30: Reflections from the shore

Nairn beach, 0858. High tide. Two rowing skiffs out bobbing on the swell heading gently East. Julian strolling into the sea in just his shorts, embracing the 9 degree sea and starting his slow front crawl along the beach, headed west.  The distant piping of the Oystercatcher in between the lapping waves high up on the shingle, the groyne two thirds submerged. The lobster pot fisherman is out replacing the creels, no doubt. Low clouds cling to the top of the Soutars with a glint of sun on Cromarty across the firth. Dogs excitedly greet each other on the slither of beach. Owners do the same. 

#29: Do you have a DNF or DNS this year?

Do you have unfinished business? Is there something not yet complete?  I am a finisher.  I like to complete a commitment.  Sometimes this trait has led me to push myself to unreasonable limits, going beyond, just for the feeling of finishing.  

In athletic parlance, a DNF is a ‘Did Not Finish.’  I have previously prided myself on always getting to the finish line in sporting events and always completing projects and things I do at work.  But this year, I have picked up a few DNFs, which would previously have bothered me.  For example, I have a DNF from the Diss Triathlon a few years ago, where multiple punctures meant I travelled to the finish line in the gloom of the broom wagon, a silent dark space in the back of a white van, with three other men in lycra who also should have known better. But this year, for obvious reasons, it is sometimes simply impossible to do what you set out to do.  I am practising letting go.  Does it really matter if the to-do list doesn’t get ticked off?  If something remains unfinished, is that such a bad thing?  Maybe there is a better time for this thing to be done, or a better person to do it.  Letting go can be liberation but it needs practice. Try it yourself and see if it works for you.  It’s OK not to achieve your goals, and if you are aiming high then there will be some things you have not hit, and maybe will not.

But a failure to finish is very different from a failure to start.  So, I picked up a DNS in last year’s Loch Ness Marathon.  Did Not Start.  I had been dreaming of running this marathon, tagged as one of the most scenic in the UK, for years.  Finally, I found myself living near the start and my dream event within reach.  A year of marathon training was thwarted by illness two days ahead of the race.  The 2020 race, of course, didn’t happen either, so I still have the DNS to my name for that event.  But I will eventually start that race.  In my work, there are a few more things yet to start.  I started Dementia Adventure, something I am very glad and proud of beginning.  There is a book or some more writing ahead of me in my next work phase, which I have yet to start.  Do you have something in your life you would like to start?  Looking back, do you wish you had started something years ago when you had the chance?  A DNS is very different from a DNF.  

Overall, it doesn’t really matter how many DNF and DNS you end up with in life so long as you have a winning track record.  Are you winning in life, winning in work?  Is there something you don’t need to finish?  Is there something you need to start?

Need it always be a mountain to climb?

#28: Bellicosity has no place in our city

I was on the back seat of a bus in some distant corner of the Amazon jungle in Peru when I first came across the word Bellicose.  The diminutive native Peruvian sitting next to me had become intrigued about my presence on the bus and where I was from.  Upon telling him I was from Inglaterra his words were short and so was the rest of the conversation muy belicoso.  Very war-like. 

I have never agreed with the war-like language so often used to refer to illnesses and health conditions, the latest pandemic being an example.  There are numerous examples of bellicose language - in that people are said to be ‘battling, fighting’ dementia for example and hopefully ‘defeating’ in the case of some cancers.  Politicians and public health policy often slip into war-like language such as ‘winning the battle against the invisible enemy.’ These negative words will no longer do when what we are needing is positive directions. War-like words do not serve us in our search for positivity.

Thankfully, in health care settings the more positive phrase ‘living with’ has become more dominant in recent years than its awful predecessor ‘suffering’.  An illness, dementia or cancer, for example, does not define who I am.  Nor should COVID define who we are, yet it is something we are living with.  Like dementia or cancer, it is something which has come into our lives unbeckoned.  In the face of such adversity or challenge, we would be better placed to talk of kindness, compassion and thinking of helping others first.  Helping people see the opportunities as well as the challenges which still exist ahead.

Let us not talk or refer to war out of its rightful context and instead turn our full attention to finding hope, kindness and positivity.  We can all lead the change in how we talk our way through this together.

#27: Nairn a Ten-minute town

In the recent holiday period, Nairn has received a fair number of visitors.  Whilst the increase in people on the beach and in the town has brought some increased anxiety for some, it has been great to see so many families enjoying traditional time on the beach and in the sea.  An increasing number of these visitors are either dreaming of living in Nairn (recent comment overheard on the beach ‘imagine living here’ as reported on Nairn Rocks) or are visiting with property searches in mind. Scotland’s house prices reached record highs this month according to Rightmove which has seen its busiest month for sales in a decade. With home working now becoming the longer-term work mode for so many people there is an increase in interest for housing from those seeking a ‘lifestyle change.’  Unsurprisingly those from south of Birmingham and within the commuter belt of London are driving much of this interest. Do read my previous blog post #14 if you are thinking of moving to a remote corner of Scotland which outlines how our family decided on Nairn as our new home.

There are a variety of models emerging through the lockdown period which encourage us to maintain thinking about how we can live, work and shop locally.  In Melbourne, Australia they are developing 20-minute neighbourhoods, an article in the FT recently spoke about 15-minute cities.  We had a friend up visiting from Essex recently looking to retire to Nairn.  One of the common selling points we often find ourselves saying in support of Nairn is that ‘everything you could need is within ten minutes walk or cycle’.  As we all look to build on environmental progress towards carbon-neutral towns and cities it is likely that we are going to see a resurgence in ten-minute towns like Nairn.

What makes a good ten-minute town?  Services and quality of life within ten minutes from the home that doesn’t involve getting in a car.  For example, a good ten-minute town, like Nairn, would have:

• Healthcare facilities 

• Work and employment opportunities

• Schools and care homes

• Shops, pubs and restaurants

• Entertainment and sporting clubs

• Places of worship

• Pocket parks, blue spaces and green spaces linked as nature corridors across the town

• Bus and train stations and stops for accessing places further afield

In Nairn, you have all of these plus the fresh sea air and a sense of peace and quiet that can be quickly obtained from just a few minutes listening to the waves on the miles of sandy beaches.  But far from being the perfect place Nairn still has a lot to do to win a gold standard for the ten-minute town.  There is an investment needed in infrastructure which prioritises walking and cycling - an obvious missing business in the town is a bike hire & maintenance shop.  Whilst the river and beaches are stunning there could be more spaces for nature to move around the town through green corridors.  And there are too many High street shops empty which could become new social businesses or much-needed housing and multi-use sites.  Many of us have recently appreciated just how important the services and quality of life is local to home.  Ten-minute towns like Nairn just might start to flourish again.

#26: TEDx - Thinking Differently about Dementia - Neil Mapes

A few months ago I had the pleasure, whilst CEO of Dementia Adventure, of delivering a TEDx talk called Thinking Differently about Dementia.  It is a simple idea which I hope you will support me to spread. Dementia Adventure, an organisation I am extremely proud to have founded with Lucy Harding needs all of our ongoing support to enable more people with dementia to have both small and big experiences safely outdoors.  If you know someone with dementia in your friend or family network please share this TEDx talk with them, it is my personal and heartfelt explanation of how to think and act differently drawing on nature and the outdoors.

Please consider watching and sharing my TEDx talk here

Please consider supporting and sharing the work of Dementia Adventure.

Thank you for your support, stay safe and well :)

#25: Struggling to remain optimistic yet being positive

“I have found myself struggling to remain optimistic recently.”

“Me too, part of me has a long term sense of impending doom.”

“But I am positive about what we are doing just now to cope and adapt.”

This was the gist of the exchange between two social sector leaders today on a support call.  Both of them had made recent financial investments to expand their organisations in the next year.  Optimism and positivity have some important differences.  One can choose to act positively as a leader in the midst of various challenges.  Positive thinking or a positive mindset can enable us to remain solutions-focused and help our team of people take action with the belief that we can weather this storm and get through this.  

On the other hand, optimism and pessimism are often traits associated with our make up as human beings.  My friend and I are at opposite ends of this spectrum, where I would often describe myself as relentlessly optimistic, my friend is very much on the pessimistic side, often struggling to see how it could possibly work out in the long run.  “How will this all end”, he might say.  Or “I can see no future for us”.  But whilst organisations tend to favour and gravitate towards optimistic leaders they can be just as damaging, or successful, as pessimistic ones.  He is a great leader - and he will often fight harder to take positive action in order to make sure his pessimism doesn’t come true. 

So I am trying to embrace the unfamiliar waves of pessimism where I am struggling to remain optimistic - I am not sure it will be alright in the end.  I remain very much focused on thinking positively and taking positive action each day.  With that in mind, I am off running!  

Stay positive folks! 

#24: Streaking ahead: thoughts on daily repetition

Is there something that you do every day, without fail?  Every day?

A good friend of mine has had the same breakfast, day after day, for many years.  Steve Jobs was famous for wearing the same clothes and for daily repetition, particularly focused on removing unnecessary decisions - i.e. one less thing to worry about.  The prolific blogger Seth Godin publishes something every day and writes powerfully on the rationale and need for daily blogging and writing.  Looking back at my life it appears that I am a bit of a butterfly, attracted by the next flower.  Very rarely have I done the same thing day in day out, favouring instead the pursuit of variety and novelty.  But in recent weeks repetition of daily and weekly practices are slowly becoming the norm in my life.  Importantly, much to my surprise, I am noticing some significant benefits.

I started re-reading The Lydiard Way again about a month ago.  It is possibly one of the best running books ever written from one of the best running coaches.  The first time I read the book, about ten years ago when I got to the training schedules pages which recommended a 7 day a week running plan, even for beginners, I quietly shelved the book and carried on plodding around the fields three days a week. 

But with more time on my hands and having read the book again, I have started going out every day for a run.  I am only on day #22 of what runners describe as a ‘Streak’ - a term to describe running every day without fail, normally for one mile or more.  The most famous streak belongs to Ron Hill whose streak went on for pretty much a lifetime at 19,032 days!  But even at 22 days, I am already finding that my fitness has improved and mentally I am more robust as I know that each day, whatever happens, I will be able to get out and run.  I have had to make some adaptations like increasing yoga sessions, and stretching and massaging my legs in front of the TV, which can look a bit weird.  I have found that the cold water therapy associated with getting in the sea each week in North East Scotland is a perfect ice bath for reducing swollen muscles and joints from lots of mileage.  Rather than struggling to keep up the daily practice, which I previously felt would put too much pressure on myself to run, I now look forward to my run each day. You can follow me on Strava to see the gains I have made in the last three weeks.

It has got me thinking not only about our personal lives, sports and hobbies but the work we do.  Are there things in our work which are like the daily run?  Those tasks which are essentially good for us and good for our organisations but for whatever reason we procrastinate over or delay - possibly in favour of the shiny and bright new idea or novel way of working.  Big goals at work have to be broken down into smaller steps to make them more realistic and manageable.  What better way of achieving them than doing something small every day (a work equivalent to the daily mile) which moves you down the road towards your end goal?  

What could you do every day, that if you continued it day in day out, without fail would make you healthier and happier?  Maybe it is a daily walk or even just sitting outside for ten minutes before starting work.  Not only does daily repetition bring performance benefits, but it also takes away one more decision you need to make and keeps you on track towards living the life you really want.  I have been running 20 years now on and off and am really glad that I have started my running streak but wonder why I never did this before.

How can you streak ahead in life by doing the same thing every day?

#23: Time and Tide

I am in the extremely fortunate position of living near Nairn beach, arguably one of the best in Scotland.  During lockdown I have been making a point of taking a daily stroll down to the sea, just to watch the water.  Since moving to the coast I have become increasingly aware of and fascinated by the tide and its effect on my local beach - and its effect on me.  

Tides are part of our island narrative with perhaps the most well-known proverb being “time and tide wait for no man (or woman)” - meaning that when a favourable opportunity presents itself you would be wise to take it, in case you don’t get such a good chance again.  Looking back at your life - were there opportunities you wished you had jumped at?  Were there opportunities when the tide was high, the sun was shining and a light breeze blowing but for whatever reason, you decided to stay on the shore?  Maybe you were waiting for the conditions to be too perfect or were simply not feeling able or ready to confront the risks associated with the new opportunity.  When the time and tide are right it is important to take your opportunity.  Whilst there are many problems and challenges ahead of us all just now, there will also be opportunities and it is important that when they come we grab them with both hands.

The tides are also one of the few things in modern life which can not be reduced to ones and zeros.  The Natural Navigator, Tristan Gooley, has written widely about tides and tells us that “there is not a machine in the world that can accurately predict tides at a new location without the assistance of human observation.” In observing the tides at Nairn, there are very high tides where seaweed is washed up onto the golf course and very low tides where the sea disappears beyond the pier and lighthouse.  The beach can be full of sand one week and full of stones the next.  Seeing it every day, with a slower pace to life recently, I am finding great comfort in the regular nature of the tide.  Change happens every day.  The height of the tide and its direction of flow are determined by the Earth, moon, sun and time, fundamental forces in our universe.  As the sun starts setting ever northwards and the days continue to get longer at this latitude, I find great reassurance from feeling like a tiny pebble on the beach, waiting for the high tide to take me off on my next adventure.

#22: Green Hive receives Queen’s Award

I became the manager of Green Hive just a few weeks ago and am over the moon to share the news that our volunteers have been honoured with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK.  What a way to celebrate my first few weeks in the post! Regular readers of this blog will recall my previous blog post #13 which explained more about Green Hive in relation to #futureframeworks.

Green Hive receives the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. 

Green Hive is a local community hub supporting people to turn their ideas for Nairnshire’s community and environment into reality through a wide range of activities, delivering products and services which benefit the people and places of Nairnshire.

Green Hive is one of 21 charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups in Scotland to receive the prestigious award this year. The number of nominations remains high year on year, showing that the voluntary sector is thriving and full of innovative ideas to make life better for those around them. 

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by volunteer groups to benefit their local communities. It was created in 2002 to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. Recipients are announced each year on 2nd June, the anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation. Award winners this year are wonderfully diverse. They include volunteer groups from across the UK, including a community shop in Cornwall, an environmental group in Swansea, a group working with refugees and vulnerable people in Stirling and a thriving community arts centre in County Down. 

Representatives of Green Hive will receive the award from George Asher, Lord Lieutenant of Nairnshire later this summer. Furthermore, two volunteers from Green Hive will attend a garden party at Holyroodhouse in July 2021, along with other Scottish recipients of this year’s Award. 

Simon Noble, Green Hive’s Chair of trustees, says: “On behalf of all of our wonderful and committed volunteers I want to share our delight and pride that our hard work has been recognised with this prestigious award.  I believe in the power of volunteering to create positive and lasting change and pay tribute to every single volunteer who has supported Green Hive and those volunteers yet to join us as we strive to do more.”  

Since starting at Green Hive I have been supporting our staff and volunteer team to develop:

• A new Green Hive website capable of receiving donations

• Launching the first stage of our online Green Hive Shop

• A new ten-year business plan

• Adapting our much loved environmental activities into home-based Green Hive Starter kits

• Developing a series of Webinars starting with our Highland Ocean Plastics Webinar on June 12th

• Preparing and planning to pilot the re-opening of our plastics upcycling workshop.

Do please show your support for our Green Hive Volunteers by checking out any of the links, liking and sharing this post.  Thank you!