Enough Encouragement

 Embrace A GROWTH MINDSET – follow the advice of US First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, who said: "Do one thing every day that scares you."

– Don’t live your life on the sidelines. Embrace the things that you shrink from doing. Chase the dreams you think are too big. Even if you fail, you’ll grow along the way. 

I feel pushed by these words, moved into action. I have these big dreams and adventures in my mind that I think about living one day. 

ONE DAY - Watch out! ONE DAY is a tricky statement. ONE DAY could be said forever, and end up being NEVER! I want to make dreams happen. I keep thinking back to this conversation I had with my mom . . .

The both of us are outside in evening lounging on the porch chairs talking. She's talking about the days she's been spending with her aging mother. The high moments are interesting and tender, and the low moments are just as interesting and hard. My mom describes it like this, "Growing old in the presence of your own children is like becoming a child for them. They need you for survival, like you once needed them. It's a full circle of love. It's hard too because your aging parent is frustrated at the inability to do such simple things for themselves. And is so hard and sad to see them changing. I let my mom know that all of this is so interesting to me, because one day I will be in her shoes helping my aging mother. This conversation is all so tender to me, because I love my mom dearly and I want to remember all our fun and beautiful friendship as it is before it gets hard and frustrating. 

We started talking about life. Then my mom said something very profound. I went something like this . . .   We always feel young, We keep waiting to do things,  We keep saying ONE DAY I will do that,  And then we look around and we really didn't do it! Maybe we got to old, or Our body hurts to much, or We got to sick, or It didn't work out." Then my mom said, here I am at my age and I want to do more or I'm thinking I should have done more. What was I waiting for? 

That conversation keeps coming to my mind. In combination with my pain free days, I feel like I want to live life to it's fullest NOW. Live those dreams and adventures that look too big. Take those steps that scare you. Live with Love not Fear!