PRESENTATIONS by David Grier


SPICES TEA AND PHILOSOPHY
My run from north to south down India

Starting in Kashmere , in the foothills of the Himalayas at the most northern temple I began this epic run down India, travelling through 10 provinces which in the end felt like 10 different countries. A journey that I felt that I was so prepared for, taking in all that I had learnt from my previous runs, only to find it was to be a journey that nearly got the better of me. From day one it became an internal mental battle, struggling to remain focused and positive. Every day was a fight to take a negative situation and turn it positive. Plagued by injury, sickness, doubt and overwhelmed by the demise of humanity all around me, each day became a search for some straw of hope to hang onto for that day. In the end as a team we managed to turn it around by lifting the bar, pushing me harder and harder, finally running 50km a day for weeks on end through this physical achievement I began to believe that I could do it and managed to shut off the world around me. There was never a time that I could get into a rhythm and just run because of the mass of people around me all the time, the continuous barrage of questions and just plain honest interest in what in was doing. I finally reached the southern tip of India, 93 days later after covering a distance of 4008 km
A country of beauty, friendship, spirituality, flavours and chaos, “don’t go looking for India, India will find you “
– once again a journey bigger that me as an individual, its was a journey to make a difference in the lives of children born with facial deformities, cleft lips and palates


BURNT VANILLA
Each journey that one embarks on is so different, so unpredictable, littered with lessons. Ultimately each journey will always etch a scar of life as it passes. As I fought the twisting path of this journey, a path that has sent me on so many unplanned detours. If I look back at the different stages and how everything has panned out, they are far apart from the original course. Circumstance has been the biggest single hurdle that I have had to overcome and ultimately had the biggest effect and impact on this challenge. But sitting back and reflecting, is it not circumstance that is ultimately the biggest hurdle that we all have to face, deal with and ultimately need to have the ability to adapt to. How one handles the circumstance that you find yourself in I feel ultimately has the biggest bearing on the final outcome of life, your interpretation and ability to react in the correct way to the circumstance, that decision will ultimately have the biggest influence on your life.


COURAGE AND RICE
This is an inspirational account of my journey along the Great Wall of China, achieving a world first record breaking run of the entire length of the great wall. Pushing my body to the limit. Reaching deep into the inner strength of my mind. Through this run I had to personally deal with life threatening situations and life changing decisions, ultimately realizing that in order to continue with my journey I had to embrace change and evolve. I found out how important it is to be able to change as we travel our personal journeys through life to ultimately meet with success. We all have this ability, but must make that personal commitment to want to embrace change in order to move forward.

Looking back on the journey, I measure its success not by what I achieved, but by what I learnt along the way. Making a conscious effort, to take these lessons with me. The great wall, built as a protective barrier to shield the population of China from a common enemy, but in a sinister way keeping a nation busy. The wall has isolated China from the rest of the world for generations, but is now being broken down by the offspring of the very people that it was built to protect.

The wall was seen as a hindrance to expansions in the modern China, but a symbol of strength (known as the sleeping dragon). I see similar imaginary walls built by ourselves trying to shield our defects to those around us, blocking out change. But slowly as we move forward we dismantle these walls one at a time and release our sleeping dragon and go on to live our dreams.

This journey was not only about myself, but I wanted to make a difference in the lives of children. Through this journey funding was raised to enable some 54 children to receive facial surgery from Operation Smile. These children were born with cleft pallets and hair lips.


HOPE IN THYME
This is an inspirational account of David´s journey around the coast of South Africa, a journey running a Smile around the foot of the African Continent. As the run began to unfold the whole journey became a personal search and a continued strive to find answers to a question that David thinks are on the mind of many South Africans. ´What does the future hold for us? Is there hope in the future for our country?´. ´We have undergone such massive change over the past 15 years and in order to carry on with this process, there must be a reward´. To David that reward is hope and the knowledge that this country is going to be a better place.

David will never forget the day that he ran across the bridge over the Orange River from Namibia back into South Africa at the start of the run. The pride that he felt, carrying our countries flag across the bridge. But there was a feeling of uncertainty in him, a feeling of fear in a way as he did not know what lay ahead of him. What was going to be the result of this mammoth journey and what were the lessons going to be? Deep inside there was a strong feeling of hope for the future that has been kindled by deep rooted Positivity and Love for all that this country stands for and the massive change that it has undergone.

PRESENTATIONS by David Grier