Thursday, April 21, 2016

On Stepping Outside...


            Ah, the comfort zone, that wonderful, glorified prison.  I love being comfortable…coasting…dreaming.  I can talk a big talk without risk, but putting feet to those dreams takes me to the edges of my comfort zone.
            I remember having a sleepover with a friend when I was in grade school.  The fun activity we decided to do was to write a book.  I wish I had saved that partially written book.  I wrote three or four chapters.  It was about babysitting and I remember that my protagonist was thrilled to have been offered one dollar an hour to babysit for the new neighbors.  I also remember asking my mom to come upstairs to hear our progress.  She patiently listened to 10-year-old sentences strung together with 5th grade panache.  She said I had talent, a gift for writing.  My 10-year-old self didn’t doubt that one day I’d write a book!
            Why does our adult mind tell our childhood dreams that they are stupid, impossible and unreachable?  Why do we listen?  Comfort.  It’s comfortable to stay the same.  It’s pleasant to live day to day without fluttering butterflies in our stomachs or the stress of potential rejection.  Then maybe it hits us…I’m ______(insert age here) years old.  In 10 years I’ll be 10 years older whether I did that thing I’ve always wanted to do or not.  C.S. Lewis said:  “The future is something everyone reaches at a rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.”
            It’s time I start doing the things I’ve had in my heart to do.  Time to dust the cobwebs off those dreams I’ve tucked away behind the responsibilities and joys of motherhood.  Time to be brave and exposed and vulnerable, and do the things I’ve always told myself I would do but haven’t had the guts (or is that faith?) to do. 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will make your paths strait.  Proverbs 3:5-6



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