International Blog Swap Day

A few weeks ago I signed up to International Blog Swap Day – a project that has been jointly organised by the Digital Parents Network in Australia, and Tots 100 in the UK. Bloggers from each country were paired up, and invited to guest post on each other’s blogs. It felt quite funny for me to be the Australian half of the pairing, and I wondered whether I would know the UK blogger that I got paired up with.

It turned out that I did – it’s the lovely Sarah from A Party of Seven. We had a little chat by email to decide what we would post about, and it turned out to be somewhat serendipitous that we were matched. Read on to find out why…

Have you ever had a dream that scares you inside out? That crazy, excited fear that you get at the top of a fairground ride?

Maybe it came out of the blue and jumped out at you like a kid playing peek-a-boo. Maybe it’s been a slow burner, simmering away in the background until for some unknown reason the fire under that dream gets ignited and it becomes a real possibility. Not just a dream. But a reality.

What do you do when that happens? Do you panic and start to come up with reasons why you might not be ready, may need more time, more planning and ‘oh maybe it just isn’t me anymore‘ and laugh it off with a ‘ha, that was just when I was younger‘?

Or do you grab it, swinging out over the ledge and soar, terrified but full of excitement and hope for challenges new.

Both ways are inherently risky. Despite what it might seem neither option appears to be the easy option. Choose to walk away, close the door and tell yourself it’s for the best. Then find that silent destroyer of contentment, regret is marching through your emotions. Taunting you with the ever-so-faint whisper ‘what if?’

Choose to jump and follow your dreams and you risk, yep… crash… falling flat on your face, not only are your dreams dashed but you have to admit you made a mistake. Realise that maybe those dreams weren’t quite the perfect ending you had thought. Maybe it didn’t solve that problem in the way you thought it would. Maybe that problem is still there. Maybe it didn’t make you happy…

Dreams, it seems to me, are inherently fragile. Like seedlings planted fresh in the spring, waiting for those stronger roots to set in and give them foundation. Maybe that is where the dream crosses into reality and starts to have some substance. We all know that rarely stuff falls into our laps with no effort. The dreams that really count are the ones that are hard won, worked for, sweated over and brought to reality by the unyielding faith and commitment of the dreamer.

It’s risky business…

But, still, we dream… we plant the seed in the faith that with nourishment and care it will grow. The start is tricky and it could go either way… we can’t know that right now. For now we just have to take the first step without knowing if in fact the steps lead to an incredible horizon or a dead end that will send us head in hands back to the start.

But we have to at least try…

A Party of Seven are moving. We have been offered an opportunity to live and work in Australia. We are taking a chance. Daring to take that jump into the unknown and praying and hoping that we will all learn to fly.

I hope you will join us on our journey.