Hope this is the right place to post about "Faith" Tanya, if not apologies:
When it comes to faith, I believe in “Me”. Not always admittedly. Sometimes I don’t think I’ll ever achieve anything. This is usually because I’m not in control of my own decisions. The Local Authority, the Department for work and pensions, Westminster City Counci…
Hope this is the right place to post about "Faith" Tanya, if not apologies:
When it comes to faith, I believe in “Me”. Not always admittedly. Sometimes I don’t think I’ll ever achieve anything. This is usually because I’m not in control of my own decisions. The Local Authority, the Department for work and pensions, Westminster City Council Adult Social Services all have a massive influence over my day to day living and often invariably do things that are not in my interest - which is ironic, as that is their sole raison d’etre.
But a constant belief in my ability to take on any challenge, overcome any obstacle and win at any war of attrition has served me well over the years.
Take this morning as a classic example, I’m training to race in the world famous Peter Pan Swimming Race in the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park. I’ve been training and acclimatising to the temperatures since May of this year. It’s been a lifetime ambition, at least from first seeing it on the news as a child growing up in South Wales.
I woke up to hear the sound of torrential rain pounding down outside my sofa-surf location in Essex, I could have easily said sod it and quit then. That decision was made even easier when I picked up my towel and discovered it still drenched from its wash last night. When the Elizabeth Line shut down at Farringdon and added another 30 minutes to my journey, I could’ve turned back - I didn’t.
I was going to be late, but too late? Who knew, so I kept going.
Thankfully, I made the last race, got into the water and finished so close to my competitors that I’m not sure if I made the top three or not.
I didn’t care though, I believed in myself, raced, and that’s all that mattered.
Hello Paul! Thank you for joining us here and with this great piece - which shares my own interest in what I call 'the forces that bear down on us' and how we find ways to keep going through/around them. I hope you'll write for other themes in the project, and the way to add them usually is as a comment under the one you're responding to (it makes it easier for me to know where to add it to the archive).
I will add your words to the collection on the book site in the next few days and come back here with the link when I have.
Very best, Tanya xx
PS I think we met at the Class Nature prize giving?
Thanks Tanya. I will post correctly next time for the other themes.
Appreciate your support.
And yes we did meet at Natasha Carthew's Class Nature prize giving. We didn't have time to chat but I hope you'll learn more about me through tmy contributions :-).
I love how you’ve interpreted the theme - moving it away from god or nature and locating it in self-faith. Hope you’ll be interested to try some more of the prompts.
Thank you Tanya - do you have a Twitter account, I can promote you on? Will do another piece before Christmas. But let me take this moment to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year while I'm here. All best wishes, Paul
All best Christmas wishes to you too, Paul. Thank you for asking - yes, Twitter was always very active and engaged community for me - it’s where I built my late-made writing life and all my work opportunities came from it. It’s also where I was able to reach a lot of people and offer them support in turn. So the changes there have had me feeling bereft, but also glad to have started this space a few years back. I was about to delete my Twitter account this week finally, but am giving it one last season by using it to share word of a decade-long collective project called Birds of Firle, which I launched on there back in 2020. I’m using that project to see if my tweets still reach anyone in a useful way! I’m @tanyashadrick there.
Hope this is the right place to post about "Faith" Tanya, if not apologies:
When it comes to faith, I believe in “Me”. Not always admittedly. Sometimes I don’t think I’ll ever achieve anything. This is usually because I’m not in control of my own decisions. The Local Authority, the Department for work and pensions, Westminster City Council Adult Social Services all have a massive influence over my day to day living and often invariably do things that are not in my interest - which is ironic, as that is their sole raison d’etre.
But a constant belief in my ability to take on any challenge, overcome any obstacle and win at any war of attrition has served me well over the years.
Take this morning as a classic example, I’m training to race in the world famous Peter Pan Swimming Race in the Serpentine Lake in Hyde Park. I’ve been training and acclimatising to the temperatures since May of this year. It’s been a lifetime ambition, at least from first seeing it on the news as a child growing up in South Wales.
I woke up to hear the sound of torrential rain pounding down outside my sofa-surf location in Essex, I could have easily said sod it and quit then. That decision was made even easier when I picked up my towel and discovered it still drenched from its wash last night. When the Elizabeth Line shut down at Farringdon and added another 30 minutes to my journey, I could’ve turned back - I didn’t.
I was going to be late, but too late? Who knew, so I kept going.
Thankfully, I made the last race, got into the water and finished so close to my competitors that I’m not sure if I made the top three or not.
I didn’t care though, I believed in myself, raced, and that’s all that mattered.
Hello Paul! Thank you for joining us here and with this great piece - which shares my own interest in what I call 'the forces that bear down on us' and how we find ways to keep going through/around them. I hope you'll write for other themes in the project, and the way to add them usually is as a comment under the one you're responding to (it makes it easier for me to know where to add it to the archive).
I will add your words to the collection on the book site in the next few days and come back here with the link when I have.
Very best, Tanya xx
PS I think we met at the Class Nature prize giving?
Thanks Tanya. I will post correctly next time for the other themes.
Appreciate your support.
And yes we did meet at Natasha Carthew's Class Nature prize giving. We didn't have time to chat but I hope you'll learn more about me through tmy contributions :-).
All best wishes and thanks again.
Best
Paul Atheton (FRSA)
Back as promised, Paul, to give your link to your piece now that I’ve curated it for the story collection:
https://thecureforsleep.com/december-issue-on-faith/#paulatherton
I love how you’ve interpreted the theme - moving it away from god or nature and locating it in self-faith. Hope you’ll be interested to try some more of the prompts.
Very best, Tanya
Thank you Tanya - do you have a Twitter account, I can promote you on? Will do another piece before Christmas. But let me take this moment to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year while I'm here. All best wishes, Paul
All best Christmas wishes to you too, Paul. Thank you for asking - yes, Twitter was always very active and engaged community for me - it’s where I built my late-made writing life and all my work opportunities came from it. It’s also where I was able to reach a lot of people and offer them support in turn. So the changes there have had me feeling bereft, but also glad to have started this space a few years back. I was about to delete my Twitter account this week finally, but am giving it one last season by using it to share word of a decade-long collective project called Birds of Firle, which I launched on there back in 2020. I’m using that project to see if my tweets still reach anyone in a useful way! I’m @tanyashadrick there.