Karen Reyburn doesn’t just blog about her life; she blogs as she changes her life

My life tends towards the sedentary. I work from home, I live in a small town, I have chronic fatigue, and it is easy to order anything I need online. While I enjoy the fresh air and reawakening of the mind by a good walk, some days the CBB syndrome kicks in (Can’t Be Bothered). I have found it difficult to determine whether this is a day to rest and not do too much, or a day to push myself a bit and be glad I did.

What is the difference between rest and too much lying around? It’s hard to say. About a year ago, I had one of those epiphanies while tromping through a foot of snow in early winter. I realized that, for me, the intention is always there. The desire to do exercise is within me, but hours went by and days went by and it happened less often than I wanted it to. As I walked through snow that the rest of the world seemed to use as an excuse to stay inside, I thought perhaps the best thing to do was to walk every single day, regardless of the weather—and regardless of my feelings. Instead of going home and thinking more about it, I went home, set up a blog, and started writing.

Day One (Walk): I feel a little like a couch potato, or a bed potato: and this potato saith, nevermore. And excelsior, and all those feel-good words. I looked up excelsior for the exact meaning, and it means “ever higher,” which isn’t quite my motto. “Ever onwards” would be more accurate. I’m not climbing Everest (or even Ben Nevis), I’m just walking. Every day, six days a week, for 90 days. (God took a day of rest from creating the universe, so I figure I will do the same in my walking in all weathers.)

The challenge was just that. It was hard enough to push me, and simple enough that it didn’t overwhelm me. The point was simply to get out, walk, and enjoy the world around me—and be prevented by no weather.

On my 90th day, I wrote:

I have covered hills, flatland, sandy beaches, rocky beaches, parks, lochs, cities, towns, shops, and ruins. I’ve walked in snow, ice, rain, sleet, blizzards, slush, wind, gale-force winds, sunshine, and under dull grey skies. Early morning, late at night. By myself, with a friend, with my sister, with a group. Some only 10 minutes or so, others 4 or 5 hours long. Some days I barely made it outside and back for a short walk, others I clambered up hill and dale and stood proudly atop a mountain. Sometimes I attempted a mountain or hill and couldn’t make it to the top. I’ve been too cold, too warm, and many times just right. My wellies have never let me down, and neither has my trusty iPhone. There were a few days I just couldn’t go out—being sick or unwell or worried I’d get pneumonia again—but those were very few, and were the exceptions that proved the rule.

After I finished this 90-day challenge, I found myself at a bit of a loss. I thought of starting another, but I dithered and hesitated as to what to do this time. It amazed me how difficult it is to start something new once you have completed something momentous. But I realized from the first challenge that walking really stimulates the mind, relieves stress, enhances creativity, and helps you get so much more done! I was missing that. So, I just decided to continue walking every day, but to add a mini-incentive of trying a different kind of tea every day. In a country of inveterate tea-drinkers, I decided to stand out by going wild and being willing to try any kind of tea.

On my 90th tea-blog day, I wrote,

There are far more tea varieties than you could possibly imagine. I never had an instance where I ran out of teas to try. I could easily have carried on for the entire year with this project. I had green teas, black teas, red/rooibos teas, white teas, fruity teas, and herbal teas. I had iced tea, hot tea, lukewarm tea (not recommended); tea with milk, with lemon, with sugar, with honey. I drank tea in Scotland, England, and America, and I tried teas originating from Africa, Thailand, India, Arizona, Japan, the Netherlands, China, and Russia. I drank tea alone, sipping quietly and enjoying a time of rest; at airports, rushing along to catch a flight; in groups of laughing people; with a close friend over long conversation; at business meetings; with family; at home; and in restaurants. There were a few teas I really did not like, but even those I came to appreciate in some way. I’ve had my entire perspective opened up, and I can’t think of a single tea that I wouldn’t at least try once. I’ve learned how to guesstimate what’s in a tea without even knowing its name, and I’ve dissected tea leaves to discover the answer. I’ve fallen in love with loose-leaf tea, and even more with the green variety. I still don’t like a cup of hot tea on a warm summer’s day. And I’ve enjoyed my days of rest, too.

When I began my first challenge, I thought I might have a few people decide to join it. I don’t think there were any, but, sadly, that was not surprising.

Day One (Tea): We are a generation of watchers, not doers. We lurk about on all avenues of social media, being impressed by everyone else and wondering why life or success or achievement is passing us by. If that’s you, the only answer is to either create your own challenge, or tack onto someone else’s. It’s a beautiful thing to join in a little tribe of people who think as you do!

Unsurprisingly, then, I’m now in the midst of two more blogs. The “In All Weathers” theme is simply an easy way to name my blogs (I’ve discovered that coming up with a blog name and design can be a great hindrance to Just Doing Something) and reflects my continued desire to walk every day. The third challenge—Beauty In All Weathers—is the result of me coming across my list of goals for 2011.

Day One (Beauty): “One of those goals, surprisingly, was ‘Complete three 90-day walking blogs.’ I didn’t even remember writing that. I definitely remember the first blog being a goal, but when I set up the second one I thought it was the brilliant idea of a moment. It really has cemented in my mind the fact that setting goals—and writing them down—is an incredible way to see things happen in your life, even if you only look at them once or twice a year. If you suddenly decide to make things happen, many times the thing that you made happen is something you’ve wanted for a long time. So my focus these next 90 days is on beauty. As a photographer, an artist, and a creative soul at heart, I see beauty everywhere. And as a Christian, I’m conscious of its great import in our lives. The beauty we see in this life originates with God, and reflects the true beauty that He has…beauty we can’t fully comprehend until we move on to the next life. So I intend to look out for beauty on my daily walks, and at home, and in friends and buildings and countries and little things…and even, some days, in myself.

I’ve also begun a story blog (Stories In All Weathers) to keep me motivated to actually finish many of the stories in my head. The first one is a spy version of Cinderella, which came to mind in a brainstorming session with a youth group in Cyprus. Inspiration can truly appear anywhere!

I’ve learned great lessons from my blogging and walking experiences. Here are the ones that stand out the most:

• You truly can walk in any kind of weather. It’s a matter of having the right clothes, and being bound and determined not to let the weather win. And you don’t have to have a reason for walking (a dog, preparing for a marathon, a destination). Just go.
• Small things matter. The shortest of walks were sometimes all that kept me going—because at least I was doing something. Skipping a day here or a day there would have ended up in not achieving at all.
• Great opposition actually fuels the flame. My favorite walk of the entire 90 days was the day I walked Helensburgh in driving, fierce, cold, pounding, freezing rain. The sea was angry and hurling itself at the sea wall and at me, and I was almost the only person out walking. That day I truly fought the elements, and I even found great joy in it.
• Any long-term project is very, very hard in the middle, and also towards the end. When you’ve gone long enough that you feel you’ve achieved something, but you really wish you could just be done, is when most people quit.
• Being willing to try something new and away from your standard is valuable for all areas of life. It makes you think differently, see differently, and in the case of my tea blog, open up new worlds of taste!
• Rest is critical. It’s as much a part of the journey as the hard work, and makes the achievement possible. Trying to achieve at a high level every single day is not only impossible, but foolish.
• Celebration is a very important part of the process. Once you’ve achieved something fairly momentous (if only by your own definition), it’s important to recognize it with some kind of ceremony or acknowledgment—and bring friends along. Celebration doesn’t work alone.
• People notice things. Sometimes I felt like no one was really reading the blog. No one commented for days or even weeks, and I wondered why I was bothering. But everywhere I went, literally all over the world, people have asked how my journey was going, offering me different teas to try, telling me to “keep walking,” joining me in the process, and even starting challenges of their own! That was the most flattering and encouraging, to realize that my own efforts had inspired someone else to do something similar. Who knows how far the encouragement of their challenges could reach?

“Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heart-ache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognise them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty.…We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up to discover what is already there.” —Henry Miller

I’m a passionate believer in God as creator, and His granting us the joy of creativity in our own lives, in so many different ways. But life seems to conspire to prevent us, to choke that creativity, to push down our joy and cause us to walk with bowed head and drooping shoulders.

There is only one way to achieve great things, and that is by small steps. The things that have great results are the ones that have little starts, little middles, little ends. If you want to achieve great things for God, you can’t overthink it. Take your great idea, and begin small.