The Joy of Partners

Whats that you say, partnerS? As in plural, as in more than one? Why, yes. I have several partners in my life and I’m grateful for them all.

I have a selection of partners in crime. You know what I mean, a friend who is up for the same thing that you are, at the same time, and generally enthused with whatever adventure you are about to embark on. I salute these friends, for most of my happy memories happened with a partner in crime to witness and add to the scene.

I personally notice it when I don’t have a partner in crime. For about a year I repeatedly asked my beau to come to the gym with me, as I had no gym buddy. None of my regular friends were up for it, and the only one who was for a brief month or so fell pregnant again and was out of action. This left me sauntering off to gym classes by myself wishing I had someone to come with me. I mentioned a thing called Parkrun to my besto over the Christmas holidays and she was up for it. Yay! A partner in crime to start a new hobby!

We had grand plans. Every Saturday morning we would go to our local Parkrun. Even if we walked the 5k rather than run it, we thought the act of getting up, out and active would be better than not getting out at all. As it turned out, I fell in love with Parkrun. My friend didn’t, and she fell by the wayside, and decided it wasn’t for her.  I’m not even sure why, but I had been messaging another friend the first night my Besto cancelled, and asked him if he fancied trying Parkrun the next day. He did, and asked me if I fancied yoga at his gym afterwards. I did.

And that was how it started. I quit my gym because the yoga teacher at his gym is sooooo good, and we started running and yoga-ing regularly. We have evolved from our humble beginning as two gym partners, and now have a merry throng of 4! I went from being Lonely Lisa looking for a gym pal, to having a selection of friends who are up for a run or gym session. And my beau has even come out running with me occasionally. Awesome. I now have several gym partners.

When I was younger I use to crave company and would spend every night out with friends, on the phone, etc. Now I’m a little bit older, I have become more comfortable in my own presence and really do enjoy and benefit from my own space. It is in the quiet moments alone that some of the magic happens in my head, and i can explore my own interests, swot up on things, etc, etc. Going solo isn’t as bad as I once thought.

But, never underestimate the power of partners!

My partner, PARTNER, my beau.. is my most favourite parner. We give, we take. We annoy, we comfort. We support and we encourage. We piss each other off, and we laugh. We sing and we dance.

My best love story EVER, is from when my Granpa died. I was really upset at the thought of people not singing properly at his funeral, so I listened to one of his funeral songs repeatedly on Youtube, so that I would know how it goes. My beau watched this, and listened with me. During the funeral, he belted the song out. He really, really went for it,  rather than the solemn mumble of hymns you typically hear at funerals.

It probably doesn’t sound very romantic to anyone else, yet to me, it captures the very essence of how amazing he is. And this is the partnership I am most thankful for.