Concurring Courage

I love it when the community wellbeing term guide arrives in the letter box. I will usually sit there & read the whole thing from front to back, marking the programs I would like to enrol in or programs/classes that I think would suit the kids & I never do anything about it.

This term when it arrived, I took action! For those that don’t know me personally, I suffer from Agoraphobia, which in short is a fear of being outside alone. Getting the nerve up to make the initial call to express my interest in a local walking group was a real challenge for me.

The ladies running the group were none the wiser to my procrastinating & forgetful habits, but they took it upon themselves to call me a few times prior to the planned walking time to confirm that I was still interested – this was just the boost & reminder that I needed to wake up on Friday morning with the intention of walking on my mind.

As usual I walked the girls to school, with the walking group in the back of my mind. I mentioned what I was doing to one of the Mum’s, and she asked me where I found the motivation. “I don’t know”, but I told her I was still considering not going! I said goodbye to the kids, & drove with Aiden in tow to the community centre. For the whole drive I was considering turning the car around & just going home to get on with all the chores that so desperately needed to be done at home, but something was pushing me to keep going.

I arrived early, as the ladies had asked me to come in & fill out an enrolment form prior to walking. I sat there taking notice of the appearance of people whom seemed so much older than me & started to feel out of place.

While I was filling in the form, continuously writing my information in the spaces provided, I almost convinced myself a few times to just get up & say that I didn’t think it was for me. I started to consider the people around me & wondered what they could bring into my life & what I might miss if I backed out, so I built up the courage to stay.

I thoroughly enjoyed the walk, and was made to feel very welcome & realised while chatting, that I was amongst, even though older than me, like-minded people. I stayed on at the community centre for morning tea & I was invited to stay to sit in on an Introductory Craft Group. Again I hesitated, but I stayed & ended up finishing off, something that I do enjoy on a not so often enough basis, which was a scrapbooking page.

Our teacher offered us what she referred to as; “Little bits of knowledge about lots of things!” Aiden had toys to play with & the ladies welcomed him with open arms.

 I concurred the courage to do something that I had convinced myself that I would talk myself out of, with the feeling of contentment & pleased with my accomplishment I told the ladies I would see them again next week, another challenge I will face when it arrives.