Comfort Zones

"...and then the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." As I had mentioned in a previous blog, some dear friends of our got married this past weekend. I think I'm still recovering from it! : ) You know how at weddings, there is an open invitation to the guests to volunteer and step up to the microphone and offer a toast to the happy couple? I always sit there churning with many thoughts that I would like to send them off with, but never had the courage to get up and do it. This time, I thought I would leave my comfort zone and prepare a toast ahead of time to deliver at the reception. I asked my sister in Hilo, Hawaii if she could send me some Hawaiian "blessings" or sayings that I could use for the occasion. And, she did. When I received them and tried saying everything out loud, it was awkward with all of the vowels the language has. But, with a few coaching sessions over the phone with her and my rehearsing the lines over and over again, I got the nerve to get up there and gave them a 'toast from my heart', Hawaiian-style! It was nerve racking! At one point during the toast I saw my hand holding the paper quivering out of control! The day before the wedding I had wondered why I had taken on something that was causing me so much stress and anxiety. But, growth does not come with being comfortable. We don't learn about the potential the lies within us when we stay with being 'safe'. I was glad that I had gone through with it and I realized once again, how true one of my mom's mantras is: you can do anything you want to if you set your mind to it. Image is of a cactus bud taken on campus at UNM with a bit of Photoshop tweaking. Today's car tunes: Soundtrack from the movie (which I've never seen) "Dr. Doolittle 2"