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 hard–we 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 wasn’t anything to be afraid of.  tita was able to flip one up to hold in her hand (“it’s easier to pick up after it gets all curly!”) but i couldn’t 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 ‘the world is ours’!

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.  it’s the small but incredibly powerful difference between thinking ‘i can’t do this’ and ‘i’m going to do this’.

i’m going to carry ‘touching worms’ around for a while.  i need that strength today, when i have to do something i don’t want to do, which is: give notice at my job!  normally two weeks’ would be sufficient, but i’m sweet and my boss will need much  more time than that to find & start training my replacement.  i won’t be there for the busiest day of the year (mother’s day) and i don’t 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, i’d like to hear from you: how have you pushed out of your comfort zones recently?  what was the outcome?

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