Tag Archives foradventures

Every Leap of Faith is an Adventure

Little girl on an adventure - sa leap of faith

Adventures are how we grow and realize the hidden strengths that are inside each of us. Today I am started a new adventure with two great friends. For all three of us, it is a leap of faith headlong into a new adventure.

Martha Beck in her book, “Finding Your Way in a Wild New World” speaks about taking a leap of faith. She says that the term for a collective (like herd of cows) for leopards is a “leap”. A leopard will jump up into the branches of a tree with an antelope carcass in its mouth that outweighs it. Each time the leopard leaps, it is an act of faith that it will make it up onto a branch 10 feet above it. If the leopard doesn’t make it, it could mean it’s death, as it would most likely land on its back with the weight of the antelope on top of it.

She goes on to say that each time we face an unknown, with creativity instead of grasping at known quantities, we leap. Each time we dare to think that our art ( insert here whatever your personal genius is) can sustain us financially we leap. She reflects that each time we surrender to the way things want to happen (not under our control), we leap.

I highly recommend the book – I bookmarked it for you to check out. http://amzn.to/1Xbnz56

A Leap of Faith Helps Us Discover What We Are Really Made Of

What we discover when we leap, is what we are really made of. Do we shrink back at the challenges or opportunities that present themselves to us? Do we pass by the aid of angelic guides, because we think that what we see isn’t the answer we were looking for? That one is too easy, this one is too hard?

Today I took a leap. trusting in the magic of my soul. Today was the day that I took a deep breath, let go of certainty, trusted my heart, and leaped into “seeing what happens next.” D Elton Trueblood said, “faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation.” So today we traded in all of our fears for faith and trust without reservation in divine guidance.

I think of Dorothy and The Wizard of Oz. She learned so much about herself with her adventures. She had her companions with her, just as I do today. I don’t know the “how” part of this decision. But I listened to my heart, which said that it is the right decision. Dorothy didn’t know the “how” of getting home, but she listened to Glinda and set out on the journey. Glinda the Good Witch tells her at the end, “you had the power to go home from the very beginning”, so Dorothy of course asks, “why didn’t you tell me?” Because Glinda said, “you would not have believed it. You had to learn it by yourself.”

The same is true for me, and you. Adventures is how we learn what are powers are, and what we are capable of creating together.

 

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Adversity to Adventure

“Fear is the trigger for hesitation, yet it is also the energy that makes life exciting. If you embrace your fears, you become master of your own forward movement. Choosing fear changes fear from adversity to adventure.” Dean Hyers

Think of going on a roller coaster for the first time. You are hesitant because you are afraid, but at the urging of others you get on the ride. Then the ride begins the long climb up to the top of the first grade, can you hear the clacking of the wheels on the track? It seems to take forever to get to the top, and yet at the same time you are wishing it never will. You hear others betting that they can’t hold their hands up in the air the whole ride, and you notice that your fingers are tightly gripping the metal bar, which is the only thing that will keep you from ejecting out of your seat and flying through space without a parachute. You get that hollow feeling in the pit of your stomach as the car starts sliding down the long drop, as fear causes your stomach to do flips. The wind from the ride dropping straight down blows your hair in your face blinding you, and you slide from side to side in the car as it is whipped around the corners. screaming through time and space – no wait that is you screaming, as you hurtle through the loops up and down until at last it slows to a stop and you get out. 

Watch the kids as they leave the ride and you see that they mastered their fear as they rush to get back in line, laughing and telling each other about the rush they had – the fear changed from adversity to adventure.

What if every time you are afraid and your stomach is lurching, you remember the exhilaration of riding the roller coaster for the first time and the rush you felt as it ended and you ran to do it again?

What if you faced every fear in your life as a great adventure, knowing that you will safely come to a stop at the end and be ready for the next thrill?

Instead of resisting or even permitting fear to be part of your life, what if you value it and enjoy it?

If you can learn to really embrace your fear like a loved one that you haven’t seen in a long time, then you can become the master of forward movement.

Challenges

Challenges are just adventures and adventures are those things that seem hard while they are happening, but later they make the best “remember when this happened ….?” stories. The kind of stories that we laugh at and have a great time telling. So remember today when you have a challenge that is frustrating you or seems to hard, that someday this will make a great story and plow through it!