Celebrating Small People

Today is a special day. Not that every other day is not special. Perhaps, more, today is about some special people, small people with pure hearts and big hopes. Do we all know little ones like this? 

Just yesterday evening I bumped into two I know, full of hugs and excited about their music lessons, curious about "Why?" (their favourite lens). Off they went with special mummy B, home to look after their hamsters Apollo and Dobbie. Another special small person I know phoned this morning to tell me she won first prize in the school talent contest yesterday. She is 6. It was the Veggie Song. I don't even know the song but I'm still voting for it. And on Saturday, yet another special small person showed me an amazing animation he made of his break-dancing dad, and I was impressed with this 'homework task' that made all of us crease up laughing and chat about ideas, kid and adult alike. That is clever homework. That is how they will feel confident to apply their "Why?" and come up with great plans in this life.

Having small people around is important. They are important. They stop us bigger people forgetting how to let joy out. Kids will be kids whatever their circumstances, and in all their tenderness they also show incredible resilience. We have a lot to learn from them, and so today is celebrated.

Today is International Day of the African Child. 

From Street Action UK website:

The Day of the African Child, celebrated on 16 June commemorates when, in 1976, hundreds of school children were killed in Soweto, South Africa while taking to the streets to march against an inferior education system and the right to be taught in their own language. In 2011, the African Union is celebrating the 21st annual day with a focus on street children. As the children of Soweto inspired a generation to rise up against apartheid in South Africa, we are supporting our partners across Africa in giving children freedom from a life on the streets and the choice of a better future. [read more]

Today, let's celebrate—and remember—special, special small people. 

{Today's Soundtrack: Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues}

A Blessing

May love come and get you.

In the secret place,
be friendly and kind
to whoever you find there,
and trust that God has it covered.

When you find yourself empty-handed,
Know the remaining love of God;
Rest take you by one hand,
And Peace by the other,
And lead you to lie down in those
Promised-of green pastures.
Let them show you the way to that
'River of delights'
So you might feast on it.
It is yours to drink from.

I pray you will know
the surrounding, settling and
Soft love that is yours;
Courage - a key for the lock.

No matter how small or crushed it feels,
There is always your heart,
And for this we give thanks.

Grace,
and peace.


{Today's Soundtrack: Welcome Wagon}

Endurance Loving

This summer, I'm travelling to Peru with US charity Venture Expeditions, to work with vulnerable, poverty-stricken communities all over Peru. The plan is to hook up with a project in Lima called Paz Y Esperanza, and I will work with them to document their fantastic work. I'm also running photography workshops with some local kids so as to give them a voice, and hopefully a small foot up out of the desperate injustice that holds them in poverty, able to communicate on another level so they may have their basic needs met.

So far, I have funded the trip myself, but it is an awful lot of money. I still have another £1000 to raise and am looking for sponsorship, and so have committed to doing something totally out of my comfort zone to raise these funds.

(At this point, if you need to read no further, please click this link to Venture Expeditions, select 'Lizzie Everard - Maccu Picchu' from the 'sponsor a participant' drop down list, and follow the prompts to donate. And DO leave a comment so I can thank you!)

However, if you're curious to know more, do read on.

So, outside my comfort zone behaviour, that will be the Endurance Life 'Classic Quarter', just three little weeks away now on June 25th.

"What do you mean, Classic Quarter?" they chorus. 

The Classic Quarter is a brilliant race along a stunning part of the Cornish coastline organised by Endurance Life. 44 miles of cliff-top trail link the UK's most southerly point to the most westerly – Lizard Point to Land's End. It is utterly beautiful, but to run it you have to have rock hard nerves and a screw loose.

My friends James (pictured below) and Andrew (above), built like greyhounds, are running the entire length solo. That will be 44 miles each, up and down near vertical scrambles in places, across white sand on perfect surf beaches, then miles more boggy trail. Convention says will be one of the hottest days of the year. They appear to have more than one screw loose, but they have been practising. JJ here is smiling, yes, but I think he may also be hallucinating at this point of the race:

I—who have also been practising but am not built like a greyhound, rather a well-ripened pear—also appear to have a screw loose because I am running a leg of the race, although in relay, and with excellent team mates Fran and Sonja. For the non-greyhounds among us, running 11 miles (17.5km) on the final leg, the most gruelling stretch, will be  . . . h a r d. This leg has the highest total elevation, steep up and down most of the way. Setting off from Lamorna Cove around 2pm, round past Porthcurno and the Minack Theatre, I hope to finish at Lands End sometime around 4.30pm, give or take. Here's where you come in...

Please, sponsor me for running 11 miles like a dehydrated loon bag on impossible terrain?

I have run a half marathon before, very generously sponsored in aid of Street Children in South Africa. I cannot tell you how much, at times, putting one foot in front of the other relied completely on knowing good money was going to people who needed it. It was one of the most difficult things I have ever done. Now we are ramping it up. Please, dig deep and give generously to this project! 

To sponsor my Classic Quarter run and make the Peru trip happen, please click this link to Venture Expeditions, select 'Lizzie Everard - Maccu Picchu' from the 'sponsor a participant' drop down list, and follow the prompts to donate. And DO leave a comment here so I can follow up and thank you! Venture can itemise who has given what, so I will be able to acknowledge receipt. 

As I have already paid for the flight, if you would like to contribute towards that specifically or to some of the camera equipment I will need, please contact me here. Thank you.

This is going to be the toughest run I've ever done.

On the day itself, please do come and cheer, it is a beautiful part of the world, and if you have an ambulance, bring that too. Land's End is dead easy by car.

{Today's Soundtrack: Golpfrapp - A&E}