Fasten your seatbelts all my Type-A’s...

Turns out, there’s nothing wrong with a little off-roading.

I know from personal experience that if your comfort zone is between the white lines, you would never even dream of off-roading.

You use your blinker and obey the posted speed. You map out your course before you leave the house, and always get there on time. You keep your hands at 10 and 2.  Anything less would be imperfect and unacceptable to a Type A.  We pride ourselves in keeping it between the lines.

Type A’s — We like to think we have life all mapped out.  We find comfort in creating plans.  We take personal pride in thinking things through and being prepared for any variable.

So when life rocks the boat, we are more likely to be the ones who fall out because we rarely leave room in all our plans for a few unexpected waves.

Too much energy to blossom...  Each week as I feed and water them and inspect them gingerly for blooms, I hear those words in my head.  I know that I learned a lot more from The Home Depot lady than how to care for honeysuckle.  I learned how to grow during the extreme seasons of life.

As a kid I always chose "truth" in the game of "Truth or Dare" because I was too chicken to take most dares and too square to have any juicy "truth" to share anyway.

But today I am making an exception.  I am accepting a "dare." I am taking Jeff Goins' challenge to s.l..o...w.......d..o....w.....n.

It' a 5-Day "dare" he calls the Slow Down Challenge.

Utterly exhausted at the end of May, I decided to conduct a secret little experiment in the month of June to simplify. You can read more about it by clicking the link to this guest post.

The thought behind it was to begin slowing my life down by letting this one little word “simplify” roll around in my heart and mind all month.

This is an especially meaningful post for me.  It is marking an anniversary of sorts – kind of a geeky one – but nonetheless a significant milestone in my life. 

Life is good. Even when it’s hard, life is good.

For me, this always comes in the form of gratitude.

*big exhale*

God is a Planner too. His words, not mine:

’For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord…

Well, it’s a good thing, because I don’t.

This was NOT at all what I had planned.

And that’s a really big deal because well, I’m a planner.  I plan everything…from the next 10 minutes to the next 10 years.  I’ve got it all mapped out for myself.  Or, at least I did.