A recent Sunday message at my spiritual center focused on the idea that we can say yes to life and lean in. It was particularly meaningful for me as I lean into life more and more. In early September, I’m heading off on an adventure of a lifetime. Well, one adventure in my lifetime – I expect to have many more. I’m taking a road trip. Not just any road trip. I’ll be touring the country from the east coast to the Pacific Northwest, then into Southern California, before heading east again towards home. Home for me is Rhode Island. I’ll get to experience open spaces and small towns, take the scenic route, and visit with friends and family along the way.

I work with clients all the time around following their dreams. This is trip is about following mine. No matter the dream, there’s generally a lot of letting go going on in the process. Even as I write this, I’m observing sensations in my body and an notice an underlying thought that I’m being selfish or shouldn’t be doing this. I’m letting go of this kind of limited thinking. Letting go of fixed ideas about what should happen and opening up to what shows up. Letting go of the idea that safety and security are here at home for knowing that I am always safe and secure within myself. All of this is especially challenging for this recovering perfectionist. Still, I know I’m being called to say yes to life and lean in to this adventure.

When you were a child, did you ever have imaginary adventures? I did. I often got in trouble for daydreaming in school. And, my siblings and I would have imaginary adventures sailing the ocean on a twin bed boat. We’d always encounter a storm out on the ocean and would brave the howling winds and billowing seas. No matter what our imaginations conjured up, we were always safe and sound. In hindsight, this seems like we were practicing for real life adventures.

Walt Disney said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” While this seems a little cliché, I believe it’s true. When we allow ourself to dream we send a signal out to the universe and it wants to comply, to conspire with us to make it happen. Then, we think we need to be practical. We get all tangled in the details and think we have to have it all figured and before you know it, we’ve given up before we’ve started. Truth is, we don’t have to have anything figure out to take the first step. We can lean in, do one small thing that moves us forward, and as we lean in we find our way to the next step and the next, and so on. If I think about this trip in its entirety I can get pretty freaked out. When I see it one step, one day, one place at a time, I know I’m ready to hit the road.

I always come back to this Mary Oliver quote. “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” I’d love to know what you’re dreaming of. What adventures are waiting for you to lean into to. What’s keeping you from taking that first step…and the second. Let’s work together so you too can say yes to life and lean in.

From my heart to yours,

You can follow my cross country adventure here in the Journal!!