What’s With the Cartwheels?

I have almost no athletic abilities. Almost every attempt I’ve ever made to do anything more extreme than walking usually ends in a tragic situation.

True story.

The last time I played volleyball, almost two decades ago, I ended up being whisked off to Emergency in an ambulance.

Just 10 minutes into the game, I had fallen backwards on my head (and learned later that the red sweatshirt that someone so kindly lent to cushion my head as I lay bewildered on the floor was in fact blue!!). Let me tell you, four staples in my noggin is decidedly more dramatic than my usual volleyball injury — spraining a finger or two.

And then there were the times that I decided to be a runner. What could possibly go wrong?

Apparently a lot of things. You name it, my body will injure it.

But the one and only thing I CAN do without injury that brings me great joy is, as you’ve surely guessed — CARTWHEELS!!

I have no memory of ever NOT cartwheeling. It’s just a thing I do because I can and it’s fun, and that’s a good enough reason.

Early cartwheeling evidence

I came across these little gems from grade 2 when I was doing a major declutter of old school notes a few years ago. Y’all, sometimes it’s worth it to hang onto old stuff — this is priceless and I still can’t stop laughing!

We also have a home video of me at age six photobombing my brother’s birthday to make sure my cartwheels got on record (if I can ever get that snippet off the VHS, I’ll add it in here!)

Cartwheeling as a grown-up

It wasn’t till my mid-20s that the cartwheels started to become my thing.

Back in the early days of YouTube I came across this video of a guy named Matt who did a little jig in different places all around the world. And I thought, I could do something goofy like that, that looks like fun!

And so my attempt to cartwheel around the world began…. in a community centre in southern Alberta during my shift as a volunteer watching kids whose immigrant parents were learning English. I mean, we were bored and they were bored, so why not?

Mind you, I’m quite the homebody and don’t really travel that much (especially now in this never-ending lockdown style of living), so the around the world part might be stretching it (I do have a few in Egypt, so that’s enough of a qualifier!), but a girl can dream!

And it’s amazing how a little cartwheeling break wherever I am can be so refreshing to lighten the mood or just keep life from getting way too serious.

When will I stop?

Never. Or at least not before I’m 92. Then maybe I’ll consider slowing down.

But they tell me things get a little more creaky as you age, and I’m already feeling it in my late 30s, so we’ll see how that goes. I’m pretty stubborn, so we’ll see who wins — mind or body!

What do cartwheels have to do with the rest of this blog?

Well…. nothing. And everything. You’ll have to follow along to find out!

Welcome to my Cartwheel Life! I hope you’ll find it entertaining and maybe even learn a thing or two 🙂