Along The Trail

One Change :: framing fear

Without the bearing of my soul so far this week, I feel like I haven't really blogged! Have no fear, today I shall shear (share. but shear rhymed! It's okay. I can handle your eyes rolling!)

Bluntly, I have an intense fear of failure. 

   If I think I won't do well at something, I'd rather not spend the energy trying. What's the point in failing? (Am I alone here?) But this little (ahem) problem, well, it doesn't fit with my 2011 spirit of baby stepping to better daily living! There's been resident in me a nagging little desire to try something that very well could end in failure! But something in me has to try! I've been thinking about this for a while now. I've talked myself out of it lots of times. Been the "voice of reason" in squabbles with myself. I've very nearly given up trying before I have even tried! (exhausting I tell you!)

Why should you care? (so glad you asked!) 

 First, maybe you "feel me" on this and now your day is better because you no longer feel alone!!! Let's have a pep rally (enter high energy, motivational speaker type voice): Yeah! I declare it's time we both decide to kick Fear of Failure in the pants by just trying. No, the state of the world isn't dependant on our trying, but the state of our living is! Failure isn't really failure...it's a journey, a learning experience, an opportunity to make a better You! Let's embrace each day we have. Let's live like we were dying! (Tim McGraw would be so proud!) Woot-Woot! Okay...time to exit pep rally (aren't you glad! I am!)

Second reason for sharing: Because I am going to try...right here IN FRONT of you (with great trepidation, mind you!). Sharing in this space is my first step in conquering my fear!

Okay, before your eyes completely glaze over in boredom at this turning-very-lengthy post, I will get on with it! I'm not sure when I discovered it, but snapping pictures has become a refreshing outlet for me. When I look back on the images, I sometimes feel encouraged by what the camera captured. There's a truth in there...a message I didn't see before my eye looked through the camera lense.  I'm nowhere near an amazing photographer, but there's an amazing peace that falls on me when I grab my camera! Do you have an outlet like that?Combining this love of picture-taking with my heart to have purpose in what I do (and the need for a few extra pennies!), I am starting a little online shop called C. Hope Captured! (Gasp...it's out!) 

 The Shop has just a few of my pictures turned into prints, posters, and a card set. I'm starting small...hey at least I'm starting, right?!Pep rally aside:), I have decided that I will enjoy this little journey. I invite you along because I'm sure there's a lesson or two along the way that maybe you can tuck away for your day of overcoming whatever it is that needs overcome! Maybe the point in failing is for growth, which becomes our growth when shared! Maybe we can laugh together about the blunders that are sure to come. Maybe we can see hope together by simply sharing whatever it is that God brings our way! Life is meant to be shared after all!

One Change :: anti-procrastinating

Confession: I greatly succeed in the art of procrastination.Always have and probably always will. I could know about a project or something needing done for weeks, but if there's just a little something miserable about the job, I avoid it until the pressure's on. Am I alone here? It's not a good thing in many ways. Especially when there is a list of projects or needs piled up!

As of late, I've been sort of convicted about a certain aspect of my art of procrastination...in regard to other people. I have the common experience of people popping into my mind, then coming along more frequently, until finally they have taken up residency in my daily thoughts. I know through past experience that this is usually a Heavenly prompting because a person could use the encouragement or reminder that they are not alone in something. As I sit typing this blog post, there are a handful of residence in my mind! So today...in my baby stepping to better living...I begin to anti-procrastinate those in my thoughts by connecting with them somehow. Not only for their sake, but for the sake of pleasing the One who put the thoughts there to begin with! Certainly obeying my Daddy brings all sorts of goodness. Who wants to procrastinate on all that?!

Do you have a change you are making this year? I'd love for you to share in the comments section! Knowing we walk not alone helps us in our walking!

One Change :: Social Media Immersion

I don't do resolutions, for the same reasons many of you don't! But I can manage to accomplish baby steps!  That's what one change is about for me...one tiny (or not so tiny) way I can improve my living. This week's change is immersing myself in something I have been avoiding for some time now. Avoiding because it goes against my nature of sharing with anyone, because it is time-consuming, because it feels cluttering to my pursuit of simplicity.    I have been avoiding the social media world. Yes, I blog. Yes, I text.  However, I have steered clear of Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn.  These seemed to want more of my time than I was willing to give, nosey and gossipy, and a generic way to feel in community with others. (feel no offense if you are heavily involved...these are my issues!) These may be tendencies of each venue, but through the conference we recently attended I realized that there is a whole other use for them that is sincere and genuine and could help to make our camp successful!

My job title at camp is Development and Communications--among other things, I am over an umbrella of jobs that regard the promotion and putting a face on Whisper Mountain! The website, the mailings, the brochures, the pictures and all such things. Alas, in the name of Communications for Whisper Mountain, I am making a change.  I am immersing myself in the social media world.  It took everything in me to click sign up on the Facebook page yesterday. Everything in me. And twitter...you now have the honor of knowing when I use the restroom and other such minute details in my day! I am feeling ever so LinkedIn as well!  

In my surrendering to the world around me, well let's call it purposeful immersion, I am hopeful that I am able to connect others to Whisper Mountain, the people involved with it and the God behind it! 

Let me know you are out there!  I'd love to connect through these venues with you! Really, I would!