The Push We Needed......

.....came today. A cold and rainy Saturday morning.

To cut a long story short, we came across some people in a mall carpark, whose 4WD had two slashed tyres. We initially passed by, smiling sympathetically at their situation. Before we had even reached our car 20metres away, we had decided that we should see if we could help in any way.
As it turned out, they had been unable to contact any family or friends, and were just deciding what they should do. We helped them out with a ride to and from a tyre workshop, and Tim helped put the temporary tyres on so they could at least drive home.
Helping out didn't cost us anything. We had our lunch a little later than we had planned, no big deal there.

Anyhow, after we got home, Tim took the dogs for a run out at the forest. While he was away, I got to thinking that we really ought to make ourselves Interruptable more often. We've talked about it so many times.

When Tim arrived home, I suggested this idea of An Interruptable Year to him, and he was all for it. We thought about writing down all the experiences that the year brings, and perhaps even one day publishing a book to encourage others to be Interruptable too. And then it hit us, the idea of getting totally with the times, by blogging all our experiences.

So this is it, our family blog. To see what the next 12 months bring as we go about our Interruptable Year. We don't really know what to expect. Will it be a complete letdown? A year spent changing tyres in the rain, helping old ladies across roads, and spending all our money on driving people all over the city doesn't really sound so appealing does it.

We are hoping for a fair bit more than that to be honest. We are hoping to see a change in ourselves, and to inspire a change in others. Ideally, everyone in the world will read our blog, and the idea of being Interruptable will become so popular that world peace will be nothing less than certain. We'll see in a year's time I guess.

How This Blog Came To Be

Over the past five years, our lives have gradually become less about ourselves and more about others. Today we decided that we are going to take that further than we perhaps feel comfortable with, and commit to a year of being Interruptable.

This is an idea that we have been aware of for some time now, and whenever the topic arises, Tim and I both feel drawn to it. Being Interruptable. We've heard about it in various places (books/sermons/conversations with others/etc), and every now and then we have an Interruptable moment or day. Today we have committed, as a family, to an Interruptable year.

It's not about emergency situations, you know, the times when you NEED to offer assistance. Driving down a road and coming across a car on fire ~ you get out and offer your fire extinguisher without a second thought. Sitting watching TV late at night and you hear that unmistakeable sound of a car crash ~ you grab your shoes and cellphone and run to see how you can help without a second thought.

Our Interruptable Year is about those everyday situations, when you pass by a person or a situation, and your very first thought is "I should stop and see if I can be of any help". But then in less than a second your mind ticks over the endless list of reasons as to why you shouldn't stop
~ I'll be late for where I'm going
~ the frozens will defrost before I get them home to the freezer
~ it's lunchtime and I'm getting hungry
~ they look like they know what they are doing
~ I probably won't be able to help
~ someone else will do it
~ it's raining and I'll get really wet
~ I can't be bothered
and so you don't stop. You carry on your merry way, rushing off to wherever you 'need' to be.

The aim of our Interruptable Year, is to pay more attention to that first thought, to act on that first thought, and to deny the list of excuses.
To meet people we wouldn't have otherwise met.
To care about others, whether we know them or not.
To have completely random and unplanned experiences.
To be Interruptable in our everyday lives.