You Have to Walk Before You Can Run

Once upon a time, long long ago in a land far away (actually in a lounge in a Saskatoon hotel), three smart, sassy sisters made a bold, life-altering decision. It is a story of epic proportion.

It all started when Middle Sis began to pester Big and Little with what she considered to be a fun project with potential to explode into something “really, really big.” Of all the silly ideas one could possibly concoct, Middle wanted us to write a blog! Big and Little were having none of it. Life was too short and besides, where would you start? Why would you step out of your comfort zone? And it sounded like too much work anyway.

But Middle would not give up. Her subtle hints soon became prolonged monologues which ultimately became teary pleas for our participation…. a slight exaggeration, but this whole topic was quickly becoming problematic. Middle was relentless! And in that Saskatoon hotel lounge, Big and Little finally “caved.”

It quickly became apparent that we needed to nail down some practicalities if we were going to meet our usual high standards. The Sisterhood doesn’t do mediocrity. So, we got down to some serious business. Assisted by moderate alcohol consumption, the resultant brain storming produced remarkable results. We were overwhelmed with a wealth of potential topics. Who knew we led such fascinating lives? Who knew there were so many exciting stories to tell? And given our minimal comfort with technology, who knew if we could even turn this into reality?

Three Sisters Walk into a Bar

Unfortunately, several months passed and we accomplished nothing except the establishment of a general theme. Our plan was to walk 5K races in memory of Betty, and travel at least once a year. Beyond that, not much. It was, however, a fateful trip to San Francisco that propelled us to immediate action.

Surprisingly, it was in a hotel lounge that we met Alicia the bartender. She was very friendly and wanted to know what brought us to San Francisco. Well…fuelled once again by moderate alcohol consumption, Big Sis told her that we were looking for material for our blog (our non existent blog, that is) and we enjoyed her company so much that we would mention her in our next post. Of course the next question was “what was the name of our blog?”A tense moment of silence followed, but fate intervened as she was fortuitously called away by her manager before we could answer. And…. we made a quick exit. There is so much more to tell, but I’ll spare you the details. Suffice to say, we could no longer procrastinate.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

But where to start? Well, at the beginning is always a good idea, so we began a concerted effort to find a name for our project. Once again, Middle Sis took the lead. In a discussion with her favorite son in law, The Sisterhood of the Travelling Shoes emerged the winner.

So what next? Good question. Pinterest and google provided ample advice but it was targeted at a younger, tech savvy demographic. Apparently this was to become a journey into the hellish world of ” Senior do it yourself technology.” And we struggled mightily. Being essentially the driving force, Middle Sis made huge strides in single handedly establishing a web site and setting up the framework, but our momentum stalled once again and we were finally forced to seek professional help. Enter our #1 Guide and Saviour, Crispin at http://www.simplyduckydesigns.ca

No Question is Too Silly

And we did ask a lot of silly questions, but thank goodness Crispin is easy going, has a great sense of humor and is extremely patient. (One can only imagine his eyes rolling to the back of his head as he listened to us). He held our hand, answered all of our questions, calmed us down when we had hysterics and moved us along to actually producing Blog post #1. We are forever grateful.

In keeping with the silly question theme, we still had a lot of them, but thankfully our #2 Guide and Saviour stepped up to the plate, in the person of Middle’s son. He helped us establish a presence on Instagram and Facebook. He too held our hand, answered all of our questions, calmed us down when we had hysterics and moved us along to actually producing Instagram post #1. We are forever grateful.

Curses, Foiled Again

We were just rolling along! Our regular Saturday morning meetings were a brainstorming bonanza as we “cranked out” what we thought were fascinating and informative blog and instagram posts. And it quickly became apparent that we each brought a unique gift to the table. Little’s creative talents are exceptional (even though she does live in an imaginary world where her dog can talk) Middle has mastered the art of fascinating instagram posts and Big has an extraordinary knack for sizing photos and inserting videos wherever and whenever needed. It is truly remarkable that in addition, we have solved both personal and world problems and shared lots of laughs (Betty Would Love That!).

Of course, setbacks were to be expected and we met the big one when Covid reared its ugly head. We were massively disappointed that we could no longer travel, and in person 5K walks were out of the question. But the Sisterhood would not be defeated! Instead we chose to look at our situation as an opportunity and our new focus became anything and everything 🙂 As always, we persevered.

You Have to Crawl Before You Can Walk

It might be more accurate to say that we started out crawling before we even walked, but we have learned so much over the past 2 years. We’ve had our ups and downs but more ups for sure. Some posts have been better than others and some posts haven’t been very good, but along the way we have managed to interest a few people who we like to call our Regular Reader Family and we are so grateful for them. One sweet lady in particular, not only reads our blog posts, but always leaves encouraging comments. (We like to think that even though she is our Aunt, she really does enjoy the posts.)

If you are a Regular Reader, thank you. We appreciate you. If this is your first visit, please take a look around. You might find a topic or two that catches your attention. If not, please check in again. We are having a lot of fun with this and there is so much more to come. We’re going to be Running for a while. 🙂

We plan on doing a new blog post every Monday so stay tuned for our next one entitled “You Light Up My Life.”