The Magic Doesn't Always Happen Outside My Comfort Zone

I enjoy exercising every day, but I like to vary my workouts. My husband has maintained the same workout regimen--with fabulous results, I might add--for years. My results, I have to confess, are definitely more sketchy than his, but I certainly don't get bored. Some days I do yoga, others I lift weights and use the elliptical machine, other days I flash back to the 80's for a burst of heart-pumping aerobics. Hands down, though, my favorite workout of the week is on Wednesday, when I hike around the lake nearby with a group of friends. It nourishes me--body, mind, and spirit. I love it!

Last week, alas, we got a very rare snowstorm and so hiking on Wednesday was out. I decided to seize the opportunity to go to the Zumba class offered at the same time at my community gym. I tried convincing all my hiking buddies to go with me, but had no takers. I got to the gym, got moving, and the lessons started coming fast and furious:

1. If none of my friends want to join me on an adventure, they may be on to something.
2. If two minutes into something, I already feel awkward, tortured, and humiliated, that probably won't change after 60 minutes. This is particularly the case when an instructor is shouting things like, "Bootie! Bootie!" or "Shimmy! Shimmy!" at me.
3. My sister, Nicole, who is hilarious, gorgeous, and also a fabulous dancer, has this statement on her blog: "My philosophy of life is this: every song deserves a good shimmy. And a jazz square. With maybe a lunge thrown in, if you are extra fancy. Like me." Apparently, I am not extra fancy. And she definitely got all the shimmying ability in the family.
4. On the bright side, I can handle most things for an hour. . .like eating my Brussels sprouts, I just have to get through them. Getting through something without friends around to witness my humiliation can actually be a really good thing.
5. There will be no need to alter my Wednesday morning hiking time in order for me to participate in that Zumba class again. Ever.

Bottom line: This little diagram I found on Pinterest helped inspire me to start my blog, but it turns out that the magic doesn't always happen outside my comfort zone. Sometimes it's best to stick with what I know and love!

(Illustration originally from Alexandra Popovic via Pinterest.)

It's time!

My name is Carolynn and I like to write. My husband and biggest fan, Tim, has always been supportive of my passion. I still remember when we first married (23 years ago!) walking through a bookstore with him and seeing stacks of Martha Stewart books on display. I enjoyed homemaking, crafting, and decorating at the time and he pointed out the books and said, with complete confidence, "See? You could write a book like that!" At the time, he'd never heard of Martha Stewart; I had, and I had no illusions whatsoever that a book by me would sell like a book by Martha Stewart. You have to be known first, to sell a book like that; the mere idea was ludicrous.

Tim has continued to encourage me over the years, and when our youngest, Caden, started Kindergarten a couple of years ago, I thought, "What am I going to do with all the wide open spaces of time I will now have? Maybe the time has finally come to write a book." I even began outlining the book I intended to write. It didn't take long for me to find that the wide open spaces of time I'd imagined never materialized. Nor did my book, obviously. I knew this was part time-management, part fear. Did I have so much to say about one topic that it would take a whole book? One of my college roommates--also a mother of five children--Janette, just published her nineteenth novel. I am so inspired and impressed by her! But I knew I'd never write a novel. Coming up with creative stories was never my forte.

When blogs first appeared some years ago, I was initially opposed to them. Why? I noticed my friends and family that started keeping blogs stopped e-mailing or even responding to my e-mails. I guess they thought I could get updates about their lives through their blogs. This felt dissatisfying to me; I missed the back and forth of a chat or e-mail conversation. I felt blogs were inward-focused, shouting, "Look at me!" when an e-mail or phone call was outward-focused: "How are you?" 

However, over time I have come to anticipate and treasure every update on my friends' and family members' blogs, and Tim kept encouraging me that a blog was the way to go for me too. When I tinkered with the idea of an online Christmas greeting this past year, he decided an e-mail with a picture attached wouldn't do. He thought a full-fledged Christmas blog, complete with pictures and videos, would be just right and that's what we did. It was a bit of torture for me, as I am technologically-challenged. But he knew what he was doing; he knew once I got started, I'd finally realize, "I can do this," and my latent desire to write would find a way.

With further inspiration from Gretchen Rubin's book, The Happiness Project, I slowly realized that creating my own blog as an outlet for little bits of manageable writing didn't mean I needed to stop corresponding with friends and family. It would just be a place for me to share, once I figured out what I wanted to share. Suddenly, in the midst of my first and last Zumba class*, I realized that I am typically compelled to write when life has little lessons to teach me that I want to capture and remember. The process of writing, for me, helps fragmented thoughts crystallize and preserving these thoughts helps the lessons sink in. Would this framework work for my blog? I decided it would. Of course, my blog will still be part-family history, because my husband and children are the ones who walk with me on my daily journey through life. They help me learn its lessons and make every day magical. Thanks for joining us.

*Watch for additional lessons I learned in Zumba class in my next post!