My name is Tracey Marie and my very simple guilty pleasure is skipping.  Yes that’s right, skipping, not the kind of skipping with a rope, the kind where one bounces along, the type of skipping that we did as children hand in hand with our best friends.  An activity I believe we are supposed to perhaps grow out of but I ask why?

I usually skip when I’m out walking my dog in the middle of nowhere and when there is absolutely no chance of anyone seeing me.  Occasionally when I can’t contain my happiness I might skip in public, and a few of my readers will have even witnessed me doing this.  I have even been known to skip across the floor at work, which just causes people to smile and wonder if I’ve been drinking.

So what makes me want to skip?  It is when I feel free and happy and it also makes me feel light.  I’m also not very good at running and by skipping I can cover more distance than when I’m walking.

I was recently out with a friend and as we crossed the Thames over the Millennium Bridge I started to skip.  My friend laughed and asked what I was doing and I replied “skipping, try it”.  She also joined in.  Not only did we find ourselves laughing and skipping higher but other people started to engage and smile.

Some mornings, particularly sunny ones, when I walk across London Bridge on my way to work I want to skip, mainly because I’m happy and also because it’s a good way of moving faster without actually running and of course great exercise.  However, something stops me, I worry about what people will think of me, will they think I’m mad? Yes probably, but as my friend pointed out people run and jog so why shouldn’t we skip if we want to.  After all, who would have thought that the childhood activity of travelling on a scooter would have become an acceptable mode of transport for adults a few years ago?  In London we now see many commuters using them to get from A to B more quickly.  Could it be we are secretly wishing to engage in some childhood activities?

So, it’s out there in the open now.   I love to skip but as yet I haven’t had the courage to do so on my morning commute still worried by fear of what people may think, but as I grow older or should I say wiser I am beginning to worry less and less what people think.  The key after all is to be happy.  So when you next see someone skipping to work it may well be me.   So please don’t laugh at me just join in, you never know you might also discover the joy of skipping.

I would love to hear from you and what your guilty/simple pleasure is or anything you like to do that makes you happy but don’t have the courage to do so for fear of what people might think of you.

 Wishing all my lovely readers a wonderful week full of love and happiness.