Would that Keep You Home?

Would you cancel the trip and pack everything up and just go home? 

Would you sleep in the car? 

Or would you just adjust your location on the ground so that you and the root could sleep peacefully near each other but not with each other? 

I found myself looking ahead with a few projects when I thought of this metaphor. In the metaphor, though, I just canceled the ‘trip’ before it even got planned. There might be a root in my back, so I’ll just not do it. I’ll stay home and avoid the discomfort of sleeping on the ground, of being tired the next day, of getting crabby with my friends and family. I’ll stay home and miss a hike in the wonder of nature. I’ll be safe and comfortable and miss stories and conversations and maybe even singing around the campfire. Because who wants a root in their back? If it can’t be planned and executed with NO unpleasant surprises…. 

You see where this is going. Planning projects and adventures doesn’t come with guarantees. You can only plan so much – like putting together the frame of puzzle – and then the rest of it needs to be done as it comes along. There are so many what-if’s in a craft project, in a family project, in a new business, in a vacation adventure. That is what makes them interesting, at least a lot of the time. And that is what will make you and me grow. Evaluating and adjusting allow us to learn. 

A week after I graduated from high school, I went to work at a camp in NH. I THOUGHT I knew what the camp would be like because I had volunteered at a camp in Maine. It turned out that I had no idea how rugged or rustic the NH camp was. I cried myself to sleep the first few nights as I tried to figure out what I had committed to and began to get to know the rest of the staff I would be living and working with for the summer. There were at least cots to sleep on. But there were plenty of root opportunities when I needed to evaluate and adjust for my campers, my staff family, and our volunteers. As I look back at it, that summer (and the following three) were a season when I felt and became my strongest self. 

What roots are you willing to work around? What adjustments and adaptations will you face? As you imagine your adventure, it is good to assume there will be challenges, but do you want to let the challenge determine your path? Or will you make the outline, take a step, and enjoy the adventure of becoming You.