Guest Blog: @arinn
One of the best things about my life is that I am surrounded by incredibly intelligent, creative, talented, and interesting people. I’m even lucky enough to call most of them my friends! With that in mind, I’ve decided to begin sharing some of their work, blogs, and view points in “Guest Blog” posts. If you like what I have to say, and enjoy checking in on what I get up to, chances are, you’ll like what they have to say too đ
This blog was written by my dear friend (and fellow SuicideGirl) Arinn, about an incredible experience we shared earlier this month. She posted it in her blog Our Souls are Birds as part of her “Much Love Monday” series.
It has been one year since I moved to East Vancouver, and Arinn is easily one of the best things about my new neighbourhood. Living just 2 blocks from each other allows us to share time and experiences like the one below, with ease. And while I surely would go out of my way to see this lovely lady, having her so close that we “touch worms on a whim”, is definitely a gift.
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Much Love Monday: Touching Worms
a couple days ago, i got this text from my friend tita, asking me to go touch worms with her. she exlpained, âi used to be so comfortable touching worms, but then it began to gross me out! i want to get over that fearâ. when i was small, it was the same story: i went from being comfortable with worms, or mud, to being repulsed and not wanting to touch either. we decided it was time to push out of our respective comfort zones.
so, last night after a long day of rain, we headed out in search of worms. we found a lot of them laying across the sidewalk with one end tucked into the grass. tita showed me how, if your foot taps lightly near the grassy end of the worm, it will zoom back into its lair. we walked around, tucking the worms in and laughing hysterically before we finally set down to our task.
it was incredibly intimidating! i never expected it to be so hardâwe both nearly chickened out, but forced ourselves to gently poke this fat worm laying across the sidewalk. we were crouched over it, laughing and talking about how slimy and plump it was. as soon as we touched it, the built-up store of fears evaporated. it was kind of squishy and slimy, but it wasnât anything to be afraid of. tita was able to flip one up to hold in her hand (âitâs easier to pick up after it gets all curly!â) but i couldnât get the mechanics down, and so prodded the worm for a minute or two. we decided it all evened out in the end.
immediately after, there was this rush of strength: we realised how simple it was to overcome somewhat arbitrary blocks that exist in our lives. we were laughing and yelling out âthe world is oursâ!
it was a really short experiment, but it felt so good to push ourselves safely out of our comfort zones. it was a really strong reminder how many blocks exist in our brains, but are not useful to us. when things all boil down, it can actually be very simple to get out of those comfort zones. itâs the small but incredibly powerful difference between thinking âi canât do thisâ and âiâm going to do thisâ.
iâm going to carry âtouching wormsâ around for a while. i need that strength today, when i have to do something i donât want to do, which is: give notice at my job! normally two weeksâ would be sufficient, but iâm sweet and my boss will need much more time than that to find & start training my replacement. i wonât be there for the busiest day of the year (motherâs day) and i donât want to leave my shop in a lurch. i haaaaate doing things like this (quitting jobs and breaking up relationships) but this is a necessary step i must take. and if i can touch worms, i can do this!
now, dear readers, iâd like to hear from you: how have you pushed out of your comfort zones recently? what was the outcome?
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Do you love it?!?
oh geeez, thank you so much for featuring this!! I LOVE US