The weaver birds and I have a special relationship. I feed them and in turn, they give me hours of pleasure as they fill my garden with loud nattering and allow me to get close and watch them eat and ruffle their feathers in my water fountain. They are exquisite little creatures.

I have been feeding them for 8 years now and it’s only been in the last 2 years that they’ve attempted to build their nests in the trees of my garden. I know it’s only temporary because what I’ve witnessed in the past is that the female bird is never happy and always breaks the nests into millions of messy pieces after she’s inspected it.

She reminds me a bit of myself…

Lately I’ve realised that I do not give myself enough credit – not at work or with my running. Unless it’s perfect, I am unhappy.

I am way too critical of my projects at work and always think I could’ve done better. When praise is due my way, I tend to brush it off and don’t take any credit for my own work. It makes me feel uncomfortable.

The worst flaw is that instead of promoting myself and my knowledge, I downplay it. I tend to use words such as, “We did this and that” instead of “I did it all.” I see people around me who are beaming with über confidence when talking about themselves and their achievements.

I need to be more like them because deep down, I am very proud of what I have accomplished even if I always think I could’ve done better.   

And when it comes to my running, I forget that I have in fact run 12 half marathons in just less than 4 years as well as many 10km and 15km races. I have managed to improve on my 21.1km time by almost 30 minutes. I may be a slow but I am not a beginner. I am a runner!

Recently, there were three new bird nests in my garden. But on the weekend, one of them got destroyed as the female weaver was clearly not happy with the nest. The grass was covered with the remains of the nest.

Ironically in my mind, the nest was beautiful, finely-crafted and perfect. Silly bird!