I took regular morning walks on the golf course in St Lucia. So as not to disturb the players and because I absolutely love early mornings, my friend and I took ourselves for brisk walks at 6:30am on the golf course located at the bottom of our road. We covered about 9k and between 10,000 – 11,000 steps on our Fit watches.

At first I thought the idea of going on the golf course was boring, as I preferred the beach or along the coastal path, however the golf course was handy and I wanted to walk with my friend. We would walk following the numbers of the holes 1 – 18, and had plenty of variety with slopes and hills. It was then that I discovered it was much more than merely a golf course – it was also a wildlife reserve.

Having opened my mind to this walk, I discovered the lakes with water lilies, herons and night herons, Moorhens and coots, chicks and insects. The mornings were a discovery of nature, smells, sounds and the visual of changing flora, collecting mangos when in season and golf balls at any time of the year. Many horses graze on the wild grasses of the course too, some are tethered and others roamed and galloped, sometimes chased away by the course rangers in their electric buggies. I loved the horses.

Some hills were quite a challenge, but as the days went on my fitness improved and one where I was out of breath became easier, my legs toned, clothes that nice bit looser. Doing something consistently and making it a practice does get results.

I am always one for variety and change, and so occasionally my friend would agree to the beach walk, but mostly he liked the golf course. One day I suggested we reverse the order of our walk so we started at hole 18 and walked to number 1. This was a revelation! It felt so different on the body just reversing the order, hills I dreaded we pleasant downhills and parts I didn’t even notice were hard. But what was exciting and encouraged me to write this blog was that just by changing direction we discovered a new little path that we had not seen before and which you would never see from the direction we went in before.

The walk felt different, it brought new observations, new plants to see and wildlife. Just changing direction on the same route looking at something from a different angle brought another result. Maybe you have some examples of this in your own life.

We saw an archway formed by the trees with a path, we didn’t discover treasure at the end but it was just nice to find a new path, different trees, a change from what we saw. A path that came out at a different point but on the same course, a bit of variety. It reminded me that it’s often good to have a new pair of eyes on something familiar, or just approach it from a different direction.

I made the same discovery playing solitaire on my phone. This can become a little obsessive but I haven’t needed to join Solitaire anonymous just yet! Apart from winning points and trophies, bronze, silver and gold and getting new designs for the back of the cards I like to think about the lesson it gives me on life. It’s a game where you end up with suits of cards, you work within a time frame and it’s nice to beat your current personal best or complete in less moves. But my best lesson is to try another way, go back and try again, take a different approach or sequence, just like the different route on the same golf course. In the Solitaire game there is a go back button, reverse recent moves and a replay. At times when the game says no more useful moves instead of giving up and starting a new game, I use one of these buttons and find it so fun to complete the game just by changing the order of the moves, having more time and a variety of different approaches. Sometimes the game is completed very quickly, everything falls into place, and at other times you meet a block. Rather than give up, my lesson is to take more time, have a rest, try things in a different order or sequence. Look at things from another perspective. This of course is true of opinions your viewpoint on a topic or a held value. Perhaps research more, find other views whether personal or global.

This is a reminder there is most likely another way to reach your goals, or perhaps simply another way to enjoy what is around you.

With love,

Geraldine.