“Just do it”, says Nike. And I say: “live free from regret!”
It's never what you do that you regret, only what you don’t do. Today is the day! None of us know how long we have on this planet or how long our loved ones have either. For this reason, I pencil bucket list items into my diary and then I set about bringing them to fruition. There’ll never be a good time, and there’ll never be money sitting around waiting to be spent, so pick a date and just make it happen. Everything falls into place once you commit and committing is the hardest part. I took my children on adventures when they were growing up, as many as I could. We did things that were way out of their comfort zone. Things where they had to step into the unknown and feel their way. Hacking a trail through the jungle with a panga to get right up to a family of gorillas in the Congo was where Tyler and I found ourselves in August last year. It was something I had dreamed of doing and there are simply no words to describe how incredible it was to be right next to a creature so huge and so still. We watched in mesmerized amazement as a giant silverback ate for over an hour, branch after branch and then lay down on his back to scratch his belly and let off some excess gas and enjoy the moment of satiation for a while.
We were in his world.Guests. Uninvited, but welcome. We were privileged beyond belief and tears of gratitude poured down our sweat stained faces.Before we left home, there were cries from all corners: “are you sure it's safe?”, “there are pygmy attacks and kidnappings, I don’t think you should go!” “Ebola virus is a monster factor there, it's insane to go.” I wasn’t sure, I was afraid, and it was a risk. But it's a risk being alive anyway. We went. We educated ourselves on how to keep safe, did our research and found recommended people to help us navigate Virunga and Kahuzi Biega Game Reserves. We went and it was magical. When we live trying to control things and avert risk, we drain our energy. We limit our fun and we live, but only just. When we let go and follow our dreams and our intuition, our inner drive and our innate curiosity we have access to unlimited joy and delight. You don’t have to step into the jungle in deepest, darkest Africa to face your fears you may just need to speak your mind, change a habit, give up something that’s not serving you, or make a change in your life, that’s been nagging at you for a while. But today is the day…… just do it! Release the energy that you are spending, avoiding whatever it is. Who cares if it's uncomfortable? The reward is vibrancy!
Love,
Sue Fuller-Good.