"Do One Thing..."

Eleanor Roosevelt was one tough cookie and classy chick all mixed into one. I love her quotes. Every now and then I go to Goodreads and read her bits of wisdom.

This morning, one of the blogs I frequently sip my green tea over, asked this question:

"How often do you do something entirely new?"

It was, indeed, a "good read".  Reading the blog, I was taken back to one of the grand First Lady's quotes:

"Do one thing everyday that scares you!"

I realized that I have been on the path of new adventures. Starting up a book club, becoming a vegetarian, returning to pottery and art, attempting things I thought were too hard, going places alone (a lot), making new friends. Four of my friends are starting a little walking club. Four women and I are making a trip to Jacksonville, Oregon to a Britt concert and I am starting my own business, just me, no partners! I have actually just presented a proposal to our church for a brand new kind of ministry. I am making my dog his own wheat and corn free food!

Don't worry, my friends, I am still as woo~woo as I've always been!Just a more balanced woo~woo.

There are even changes going on in my brain. I am finding that my attachment to old ways of thinking are slipping away. My reactions to the statements and actions of some people have become a detached observation, not an emotional reaction. 

Don't get me wrong, my bloodlines insure that there will still be plenty of emotional reaction; I have not become a Steppford wife, I just get to choose what events I am going to merely observe  and which ones will hit the emotion button. Once the E-Button has been pressed, it is also my choice to stay emotional, or search for where and why the emotion is there. With that awareness I can choose whether to stay in the emotion or step back and observe.

It is strange that the older I get the  more courage I muster up from the core of me. Maybe it is the fear of what-if-I-fail just doesn't have the clout it used to have. I have detached from caring if strangers, or people I know, witness me falling on my ass. I am in the game.

Tomorrow I am taking very dear ashes to the coast to spread them in the waves. A pain in my heart as I typed that; but facing those events that cause us pain in the heart and completing them will help us build courage. And "courage" as we know means "from the heart."

So, unlike Eleanor, I am most likely not going to do something that scares me every day. Being the First Lady of the United States and waking up each morning probably filled that requirement for her.

I am, though, going to do something new each day...okay....maybe not each day, but I promise you this, Reader, I will not end another week of my life without trying something new some time during the week. I would venture to say, though, that Mondays will probably not be the day I try something new; too cliche, too mundane and, more honestly, already too hard to get those turbos charged on Monday.

List of New Things I Will Not Be Doing

Bungee Jumping

Soft Tofu

Nascar

Watching Professional Baseball......("wake me up, before you Go, Go. Don't leave me hanging like a yoyo!")

Marathons

Mud Wrestling (though I am willing to try peanut butter or tapioca pudding)

Sailing anything under 50' on the open sea.

Sailing anything over 50' on the open sea.

Logging

Swimming the English Channel (speaking of channels, I won't be watching HBO, either)

Climbing Mt. Everest  or any other peak over 14,000 feet.

Hang Gliding

Parachuting

Participating in MXC Challenges

I do have a Bucket List and may post it down the road, in fact, maybe I should add that to the bottom of the list: #137.  Post Bucket List

One of Ms. Roosevelt's quotes I will be paying a great deal of attention to is my favorite:

"Happiness is not a goal...it's a by-product of a life well lived." 

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/eleanor_roosevelt.html#s77hMdSCwkKQ0Dr6.99