The Surf Yogini: Compassion, cake and running Ethiopian style....

Me and the boys L-R Djene, friend I can't remember the name of! Alex, Heptamo and me.

Act like the whole universe depends on what you do, whilst laughing at yourself for thinking that what you do makes a difference

- Buddhist Philosophy

I fulfilled a dream of mine Saturday morning. Having being woken up at 5am-ish by my diligent racing partner Djene, we walked the twenty minutes to the bottom of Entoto mountain and started our routine run. Three quarters of the way up an affable gent, not even out of breath jogged up to us and introduced himself as Nassir. Nassir happens to be an Ethiopian cross country athlete whose competed all over the world. He also knows the famous Hallie Gibrelselassie probably the most recognizable Ethiopian runner!

So things were going pretty well, we decided to run as a group and without fear of sounding monumentally big headed - your Brummie girl was doing England proud. At this point I'd been told I was very good and asked if I wanted to run on Sunday...

Anyone who knows me will agree I have a distinct style when it comes to coordinating myself. Not content with my running pace I tried to speed up (to show off effectively) and ended up stacking it. Big time. I ripped my leggings got blood every where and pretty much grazed anything that wasn't covered. *Cringe*

And thus I learn't another little Buddhist tidbit: -

Let go of the ego!

So aside from humiliating myself in front of athletes I've been doing the antithesis of anything healthy by indulging in the cafe culture here. The Italian occupation several years back has left smidgens of little Italy all over the place. For example everyone drinks coffee and bakeries with an Italia feel are literally everywhere. Naturally as a caffeine fiend I love this!

I'm also majorly in love with my family, the Abera's are such a close, affectionate family. Out the corner of my eye I often watch Hana and Belete (mom and dad) at meal times feeding each other and mirroring each others body language in the way only really loved up couples can and do so. They've been together years and have this amiability which is just so subtle and caring. I hope in my future I'm able to replicate such a relationship to be so in sync with someone, that you don't need big gestures because your everyday is real love.

Naomi (who features in several of my earlier blogs) is my soul sister here and has discussed in depth with me this idea of family or career. As a woman I feel that we are somewhat of a slave to our ovaries. A completely biased, unscientific observation has led me to believe the women who travel and concentrate on their career tend not to have relationships or family. Obviously there are numerous examples of women who have achieved both the successes of family and purposeful work but I find, as far as NGO work goes (in the field I mean), it is men who are able to have the best of both worlds.

I'm lucky to be with a man who supports me and who has been nothing but amazing when it comes to helping me follow my dreams. We're newbies in this relationship but I do feel that we've got the ingredients to perhaps go the distance.

I hope I can be a woman who utilizes the maternal instinct within me as a strength, to be a mother to the earth as well as flesh and blood. I hope I'm able to help the world not only because it makes me feel good and purposeful but because I can better serve living beings. We are ambassadors of our time, there will be no other people to live in this period so I feel its our duty to make sure our imprint in history is a positive one.

So here's to our past, for the now and to the future!

Live compassionately loved ones!

Sophia

P.s. Here's some more photos: -