There were numerous reasons why I didn’t want to get up and do NP this morning. My head is still reeling from the events in Manchester yesterday. Many people I know have been personally affected and I’m still struggling to make sense of such an atrocity so close to home. I woke up on the verge of tears, my mind still full of the news that was coming out of the UK. To make matters worse – the torrential rain we’d avoided last week was battering my windows with no sign of letting up. My co-leaders are away sunning themselves and so it was down to me. Staying in bed wasn’t an option.
I walked down to our usual spot, the bleak weather pretty much mirroring the mood I was in. Thunder and lightning accompanied the rain and the Hong Kong Observatory hoisted a weather warning . I secretly hoped no one would be crazy enough to show up in this weather.
And yet show up they did. And I shouldn’t be at all surprised. Because of course people showed up.
It was a smaller crew this morning but suddenly I realised that numbers aren’t important. It’s not the quality it really is the quality of the people that show up. And those guys that were there this morning certainly gave it their all. Their commitment and dedication really does blow my mind. My original plan had to be abandoned as despite the enthusiasm wheel barrows and bear crawls are definitely less viable when the rain is quite literally bouncing back up to your knees and the park is flooding around you. But no one seemed to mind – they happily got on with the ideas I plucked out of my ass and were every bit as cheerful as they would be in the sunshine. Whether we have 2 or 222 people – the energy of November project is there, this crazy thing that has been built worldwide is succeeding and growing because of this energy, because of the buzz you get EVERY SINGLE TIME.
It struck me that people probably didn’t show up today for a work out. Yes, that’s the basis of a fitness group, but any one of those people could have found a nice dry space to do a few burpees in this morning if a workout was all they wanted. Those people turned up in the rain to support one another and to help build on the community that Brogan and Bojan started thousands of miles away.
Its time like this, in the aftermath of terrorist attacks that are all too quickly becoming a ‘normal’ part of the world we live in, that community becomes increasingly important. Community; people being there for another, supporting one another, giving hugs and high fives. It truly is a ray of light through the darkness and a beautiful reminder that there are more people in the world wanting to build community that tear it down.
There is more good than bad. There are more people wanting to make the world a better place than there are people wanting to destroy others’ lives. There is more love in the world than hatred and love can be found anywhere; in a workout group consisting of people who were once strangers, in a city that few of us originally called ‘home’.
I came away from this morning’s workout reminded that the human spirit is an incredible thing. I came away far more positive than when I headed down and I’m sure every one of those beautiful humans who came out this morning started their day with a bigger smile than most of Hong Kong. NP – we salute you.
