Jenny's Cabinet of Curiosities: No One's Forcing You To Read This

This blog was originally started as a tool for my Chartership to CILIP although, as it name suggest, it was always intended to be a repository for my numerous interests and creations. It's covered my art, other people's art, a variety of professional and work related pieces, holidays and, over the last two years, a piecemeal account of my separation and migration to the south coast. It has, in the main, been entirely self indulgent. If you don't like that tough. No one's forcing you to read it. Also I wouldn't recommend you continue with this particular post.

What it hasn't touched so much is my running and the important role it has taken on in my life. More than the obvious benefits of improved fitness and incredible body confidence running has become a way of putting my day behind me. Of getting, for want of a more original phrase, headspace. It has also however become a coping mechanism, and now, unable to train due to an achilles injury, I am somewhat bereft. Forty minutes on the cross trainer just isn't the same as an early morning run in the sunshine and as such, ten days into a currently unknown period of running abstinence, I am turning to other means to keep my head and hands occupied.

I should make it clear for the sake of my mum (who I'm fairly sure is the only person who reads this) that I very content. Happier possibly than I have been for a while. Although I miss home and the culture of Bath I am finding my feet in Southampton and growing to love the New Forest and the odd bit of beauty Southampton itself throws at me. In fact finding that beauty, on Weston beach at dusk or during a quiet morning on Southampton Common, continues to surprise me in a way that Bath never did.

However with running no longer an option I've had more energy and opportunity to play and create. To think about ideas and generally build on themes in a way I haven't done in a while. In some ways the art is just like the running. I have neither a target or a particular outcome in mind. I don't measure myself or pay close attention to pace or ability or technique. Both are a means to an end, influenced by my immediate surroundings and are in the main a solitary occupation. A way of relaxing, of being me. So while I'll miss the running at least it means I'll be doing more of the stuff below.