Who’s supporting you in your journey?
Normally on the Queen’s birthday weekend, we are with several other families at Cobram RACV resort in Victoria’s Murray country. We’ve been gathering there for almost a decade after the gang outgrew household visits. (Final numbers 16 adults and 21 children).
The original eleven, forged friendships as Uni students living on campus in the 1980s. We lived and studied in each other’s pockets for several years. Arts, finance, agriculture, and science students grew up together and then embarked on life’s journey, meeting life partners, building careers, families, and businesses. Despite living at various times in all corners of Victoria and at times interstate and overseas we’ve remained a tight bunch.
When the Cobram tradition began, the next gen ranged in age and stage, from babies to primary school. Most are now young adults with the youngest in their tweens. Those kids are lifelong buddies already and count this weekend as their favourite, even better than Christmas in some eyes.
This weekend, message group banter and smaller gatherings has replaced three days of continuous chat over cups of tea on sunbathed cabin decks, on pleasant walks and a quiet evening drink gathered around a Bunnings special outdoor gas heater. Each year, the heater is carted 150 km in the back of a ute to counter the crisp cool early winter nights and is never quite up to the task. The social chats are interspersed with crucial adults v kids sporting conquests and after dark cops and robbers… as you do.
Conversations are of parenting highs and lows, career ups and downs, renovations, relocations, aspirations, aging parents, and sadly the death of loved ones. We’ve shared it all.
The “Cobram Crew” are a part of my support network and a key ingredient in my recipe to be well and productive both personally and professionally.
They are like the safety netting on the modern trampoline. They protect me from falling too hard, as I navigate the bounciness of life and balance risk and reward.
Resilience experts tell us that support networks are an essential part of sustained performance and wellbeing. They help us navigate uncertainty and weather the storm.
Who’s in your support network? When did you speak to them last?
Pick up the phone, tee up a Zoom catch up or send them a text. Your wellbeing and performance depends on it.
Stay safe