Bridge to Terabithia: From Uninspired to Creative Fulfillment

It seems I am finally crossing a bridge into the land of productivity, and this is definitely something to celebrate. If you’ve been keeping up with my blog posts, you’ll know I’ve been struggling to write for the last few months. And it’s not that I haven’t wanted to, but it seems every time I’m home there has always been something I’ve had to prioritize over writing (which sucks, but let’s face it, that’s reality sometimes). But, I have finally dropped my fulltime orientation hours at the hospital to my contracted 0.5FTE, which has given me a welcome break and time to actually get shit done.

Of course, by now there’s a gigantic list built up of all the things I was putting off, so it’s not like I’ve been able to shut myself in my study and write all day. But, slowly, my chaotic life is being dismantled and rearranged into something that at least resembles order. I sat outside a few evenings ago, cup of tea in hand, and wrote a solid 1000 words while sitting on the steps of my deck. It has been a long time since I’ve been able to pump out over 1000 words in one sitting, and it felt really good. I was engaged, I was enjoying myself, and another chapter is now close to its end.

Let’s just call the last few months water under the bridge, shall we?

Along with kickstarting my writing again, I’ve also been improving other areas of my life. For a while there, I was stumbling through such a heavy fog of exhaustion that I ‘fell off the good habit wagon’ as I’m calling it. Which is to say, I basically rebelled against life in general. Dan has been home over summer, so I took a vacation from house chores and left the majority of it up to him. But, as energy has been slowly returning I’ve taken a pretty hard look at my life and decided it’s high time to get back into a routine. A healthier one.

Dan discovered the Conqueror challenges recently, and so we both decided to give it a go. Basically, you sign up and pay a small fee for a virtual marathon, and you can do any distance related activity to complete it. The challenges are based all over the world, and once you complete them, they send you a snazzy-looking medal. To add to the incentive, they also plant trees in real life as you reach milestones along the way, which I thought was supremely cool—not only am I improving my own quality of life, I’m also helping to save the planet. Other awesome features include google street view of where your virtual location and nifty ‘postcards’ that are emailed to you which includes a bunch of interesting facts about the places you pass through in your virtual travels. And to top it off, we discovered this is a New Zealand company based in Mount Maunganui. While I’m living in Canada now, it still feels good to support businesses in my home country!