I’m not writing this blog post at campsite. In fact, I’m in Cornwall. I’m writing this halfway through my summer break with my family, and I just decided just to come down to the Marine Harbour just to grab a bit of time to write this blog. I’m actually outside the National Maritime Museum here in Falmouth. It’s a lovely museum. And right opposite, an amazing harbor full of amazing boats. Lots of money, but hey, that’s not what I’m here to talk about.
What I’m talking about is this summer break, I’ve been off scouting for nearly six weeks. I took the whole of the summer break, probably the same as you, and I know some scout groups are still going through the summer holiday. Some of our scout groups break up, some of us don’t. And I know some groups have decided to run through the whole summer holidays because of the whole COVID thing. We’ve lost nearly two years of scouting, and some leaders decided, “You know what? Let’s continue through the summer holidays while we’ve got this beautiful sunshine and the light.” Each to their own.
But for me, for my personal reasons, and probably a bit of my mental health, and also from past history of running Scouts through summer holidays when we only had a handful of Scouts, my scout group, we’ve decided just to stop the whole Scouts during the summer holidays and for us leaders to take a break. And that’s the reason for today’s blog, about taking a break and recharging those batteries up. I’ve spoken about it before in the past about when we hit that burnout and how we can recharge our scouting spirit and re-emphasize why we’re a scout leader.
I was recently gifted an amazing book by Belinda Kirk, who’s an English adventurer, and she was the first British lady to
navigate round the whole of the British Isles. And reading her book during the summer holidays really emphasized why I’m a scout leader. And there’s some research that she’s done for the book. My memory is not that good, so I’ve got a quote. So in the book she was talking about some research that she was reading about, about volunteering, and I thought, “You know what? This is exactly what scouting is all about.” And it says that if you do volunteering that contains elements of challenge, uncertainty and adversity, this all helps our wellbeing.
I thought, “You know what? That’s what scouting is all about, isn’t it?” We do challenges, not just for ourselves, but for Scouts as well. We challenge them! We push them out of their comfort zone when we take them on camping, when we get them climbing, or maybe not that kind of adventure. Maybe it’s working as a team. They’ve never cooked before, learning to cook on a campfire, and that’s challenging, isn’t it? Taking them out of their comfort zone. The uncertainty, will this campfire go? It’s raining and windy. They’ve spent some time. Now, can they cook on that campfire?
I’m sitting here, outside this harbor, and my wife is scared of going on a boat. And I wanted to do a boat trip, and she’s just worried about it all. She can’t swim or anything, so it’s a bit like that as well, isn’t it, as a scout? Going out on a boat for the first time, canoeing or whatever.
And adversity, what does that mean to you? The Oxford Dictionary defition says :- a difficult or unpleasant situation
Belinda also put in her book that research helps with our own mental health, whatever the reasons are. Whether it’s you like to go out to help young people and get out in mother nature and enjoy it. I’m in London all the time, so being out here in Cornwall, being by the beach, being by the harbor has been so nice for a whole week of just walking a few minutes. And we’ve spent days… Days have just gone past, sitting on the beach. And for my mental health and recharging those internal batteries, because working at the hospital is full on and Scouts is full long and the kids and the family, so just coming here and recharging those batteries has been amazing. And that’s like what happens during my break in the summer holidays with scouting, just recharges my scouting battery and my love and everything I want to do with Scouts.
She also puts in her book that encouraging anyone to be the best that they can be and to live their best life. And being away on holiday this week has really, really helped me realize what life is all about, isn’t it? It’s not all about money and having the best this and the best of that. And these boats are amazing, and I’d love to have one of these boats. But physical things, does it prove anything? For me, it’s all about giving and the community and giving back what I, as a kid, to the young people that we enjoy doing scouting with today, isn’t it?
So yeah. They do our heads in. We’ve spent weeks prepping for that program, and they come along and they mess around. And you think, “Why am I doing this?” Just step back and realize why. Why are we doing it? And what do you get from it? And there’s a million reasons of what you get from scouting. And your reasons are probably different to mine and my assistant cub leader and my scout and my district commissioner. We all have different reasons why we’re doing scouting.
So I think the point of my video today is being away on holiday for a week has just reset all those batteries, personal battery, scouting battery, I really miss Scouts. And just, yeah, wandering around nature has realized that actually I need to do a bit more of getting out in Scouts. We’re doing the same repetition every four years. And being here on the beach and just seeing… There’s been like a kid’s club. I was talking to some people that run it, and you can sign up for a day, three days, and local people send their kids for a week and they go out on the sea and whatever. And granted, we can’t do that all the time. I’m in London, we don’t have access to the sea. We have the canal. We have the River Thames and things I haven’t really thought about. And I think this has just recharged my scouting battery. I need to do something more adventurous with my Scouts rather than the same thing every four years, repeat the same program. Let’s push myself and challenge myself.
So you know what? You’ve read it here in this blog, my challenge by the end of this year, I’m going to go and do some canoeing or kayaking with my Scouts, get out on the water. And I’ve realized how much being next to the sea, I don’t do anything on the water with my Scouts. So I’m going to do this thing that Belinda was talking about, getting out of my comfort zone and pushing myself and challenging myself.
So let’s set ourself a challenge. Come on, scout leaders. What are you going to do different this term that you didn’t do the same as last time? So, as I say, I think I’m going to do a bit more adventures with my Scouts. Maybe we do some climbing, some canoeing or something like that, rather than just the same old, same old what we’re doing. And yeah, the Scouts, they repeat it because I have a four year cycle. But for me, I’m repeating the same old and the same old and the same old, isn’t it?
There we go. A bit of a waffle as I’m enjoying the sunset as it’s coming down here in Falmouth, in Cornwall. It’s been an amazing week, and I hope that you’ve had a lovely summer holiday, guys. And what have you been doing in scouting? Let me know, comment below. I’d love to know where you scout and what your new adventures and what you’re going to do different in this term.
Are you going to set any new challenges, personal challenges? I’d love to know
Comment below those challenges.
Take care, guys, and happy camping. Bye-bye.
Finally I’m back Face to Face Scouting
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