Things I learned on my trip Part 5

Last installment….bet you’re glad I’m about done!

This is it: Inspiration is all around us…when we see it and look for it, and allow ourselves to be inspired by it…well, LOOK OUT WORLD!! Here I come!

Running bikes are a smarter way of teaching children balance on a two wheeler. Counselling is an innovative way of looking at the same problems with freshness.

The above photo is of an impossibly little guy who is out with his dad enjoying the fresh air in Calgary. He is on a running bike. It is a bike all right, but with no pedals. He just makes it go with his feet. And boy, could he make that thing go! I read about these bikes…they are to help children learn to ride a two wheeler. The old way of learning a bicycle was with training wheels (many still use these), but these actually teach pedalling, not balance. The child is still using the extra wheels to balance. With a running bike, they learn balance before pedalling. I went on You Tube and there were kids just a year and a half old with the balance of a bicycle all figured out.

I was inspired to remember that often when faced with a problem, we use the same old tried and true methods because that is what others know and suggest, and that is what is familiar, and obvious. However, these running bikes are such an obvious and wonderful alternative to a traditional bicycle and so clearly teach balance in a simple and clear way. New alternatives sometimes just require a new approach to the problem, and a willingness to be creative and playful and fun.

Inspiration #2:
Sitting volleyball is a powerful metaphor of creatively finding ways of making something work. Counselling can help with that innovation in life.

In Calgary, in amongst the 21 volleyball courts in the Olympic Speedskating Oval (quite a sight to see, in itself!) was a smaller court for sitting volleyball, an alternative sport for those with mobility issues. Wow, it was fun to watch. It was inspirational to be reminded that when something doesn’t work in the usual way, there are ways to find alternatives to be able to be a team, to get fit, to practice a skill, to develop expertise, to get healthy. Man, could these women play! Sitting volleyball has its own international league with specific rules and qualifications. Cool.

Inspiration #3:

Rick Hansen provides ongoing inspiration and encouragement to

This man needs no explanation about why he is inspiring. It’s pretty obvious given his “Man in Motion” tour that circled the globe. Incredible.

Rick Hansen is gesturing here to a young volleyball player as he is telling the story of how Rick Mercer of the Mercer Report got him to go bungee jumping. They strapped him and his whole wheelchair to the bungee cord and he “went for it”. He chuckled pretty good telling the story–only I’m not so sure he was chuckling when he originally jumped. He was using the story to encourage this young fella to calm his nerves, breathe deeply and serve hard–to “go for it”.

Mr. Hansen was at the tournament on a couple of days, and I admired his ability to smile, shake hands and pose for pictures, exchanging cheerful conversation with any who stopped to talk to him. That was also inspiring to me…there are times when it is hard to smile and extend a hand, and it was good to have this moment to remember at those times.

Inspiration is closely related to hope. Grab inspiration wherever you can find it. Squeeze hope when you can.