Getting out of my comfort zone

 

This past Friday on August 5, 2016 I did a few things that I had not done before and they were all out of my comfort zone.  I can tell you that I am a creature of habit.  I like to have consistency in my life more so than spontaneity.  I find that when I am put on the spot to do something I tend to have the deer in the headlights response.  My mind goes blank and I don’t know how to respond to the question.  Doing something new wouldn’t sound like a smart idea for me, but I decided to take a chance for once in my life and I found it was worth it.

Nathan and I went to a food festival on the east side of the city.  I had never actually been to one before.  One reason is that before when I use to have an eating disorder I would never let myself eat when I was outside my house.  At the time it felt good that I could control myself while other people would be eating around me.  The truth is that it didn’t make anything better and actually it left me with a growling stomach and awkwardness around my friends and family.

To be able to go out to a festival that the main focus is food is a really big thing for me.  My husband had been there once before, and had said that they had really good food there so I thought it would be worth going.  Another reason I was apprehensive was that large crowds of people can make me nervous.  The great thing is that there are ways to get around that.

The food festival was all weekend, so we decided to go when it first started.  I’m glad we did because there was a lot less people that day then there would be on the Saturday.  I heard from a friend that sometimes there are so many people on that day that they are basically like cattle herding together.

Nathan and I were walking around trying to figure out what to eat when we saw a Greek place that was selling gyros.  One type was chicken and the other was beef and lamb.  I had the chicken and Nathan had the beef one.  It had lots of sweet peppers in it and even white onion.  I’m not a big fan of onion, so I was a bit nervous to eat it, but I thought I wanted to try something new.  I was really surprised how good it tasted.  Even though it was on a small pita it was quite filling.

After we finished eating we decided to continue to walk down the blocked off streets.  It was pretty awesome to be able to walk down a normally busy street with no cars.  I was so happy to be able to get out with my husband on a Friday evening.  It felt special as we often stay in and watch a movie on Friday nights.  At one point we went into a kitchen store to get out of the heat and also to get away from the crowds.  It’s funny how you come into a store planning on buying one thing, and then you end up buying two things.  I didn’t mind though as we bought something fun that we both could use.

When we finished walking through the whole festival we went over to one of my close friend’s place.  She was hosting her house for the weekend for anyone that wanted to go to the festival and then have a place to go afterwards.  I was a little nervous at first as I hoped she wouldn’t have a big group of people on the Friday night.  Turns out there was only six of us.  We all talked, laughed and had even more food than what we already had at the festival.  My friend loves karaoke and has her own machine, so she invited us to do karaoke with her.  I don’t mind singing by myself or with my husband, but anyone besides that and I get super nervous.  I decided I’d watch the other three people that wanted to do karaoke.

After watching my husband and my friend sing for over an hour I actually got up the nerve to sing karaoke myself.  I had never done it before, and I was super anxious, but I realized that everyone that was there was non-judgemental so I decided to sing.  Once I figured out about using the mike and reading and singing the lyrics I was ready to go.  I decided if I was going to go up there I would at least do a song that I knew well.

I messed up at first not being able to sing when the words came on the screen, but everyone there cheered me on and suggested for me to try again.  I finally started to sing and I was sweating buckets, but after everyone clapped for me and I realized it wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be.  I end up singing a few more songs with my husband and then realized how late it was so we ended the karaoke and said our goodbyes. 

I never would have believed that by getting out of my comfort zone that Friday I would actually have one of the best times I’ve had in a very long time.  I hope you can see that sometimes it’s worth doing something new, as it can turn out even better than you expected.

Patricia <3   J 

 

Ezekiel 36:26    And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

 

Here’s a song about being tired of fighting, being chained down and out of control, and that when you are on your knees and answers seem to be so far away and to know that you are not alone and to hold on and just be held.  That the world actually isn’t falling apart, as it’s falling into place.  That if you focus on the storm then you may think the love isn’t there, but when you focus on Him and what’s He’s done for us, we’ll always know He’s there for us.

 

“Just Be Held” by Casting Crowns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIZitK6_IMQ&list=PL3whQX319DaB37iB8NZpJe206iSdpe3kc&index=146