If you want to do things you have never done before, you sometimes have to do things you have never done before.
This is what was playing over and over again in my head and in my heart less than two months ago. Brandon and I had been talking about how much we hoped to one day relocate to the Smoky Mountain area. While we felt like that decision could be months or years down the road, we were eager to hone in on some places. We knew if we were ever going to find our next hometown, we were going to have to set our eyes on some of the towns we had only driven through or seen in pictures.
We also dreamed about seeing this region during the fall. For years we talked about just taking a quick trip there, but that quick trip never worked out. Anytime we would look at our fall calendars, every single weekend was spoken for every single time. There were football commitments and cheer commitments and band commitments. There were days marked out for school and there were days marked out for work. No matter how badly we wanted to say yes, we had already handed out all the “yeses” we had to give.
The same was true this year; there were no free days on the calendar. Someone had something on any given day. But one thing had changed…our oldest kids are now old enough they could stay home and tend to their commitments without us. Now, this is not picture perfect by any means, but we gave ourselves permission, each of us permission, to do what we want to do. We realized, if we are going to do things we have never done before, we will have to do things we have never done before.
So we took the trip. While we didn’t all go, we all did what we felt called to do at the time. Two of our older kids stayed home for work and cheer, and our other three kids came with us.
I will tell you, it was difficult for my mama heart to leave those two behind and them not come with us. But you know, they had the best time together while we were gone. And more importantly, it has reminded me that the first step is the hardest one. It’s the one that feels most uncomfortable. It’s the one that feels like a leap and like there is only air beneath you. It’s the one that whispers, “you’re doing something you haven’t done before.”
The whole point of the trip was to see the fall foliage and for us to narrow down locations for some point in the future. And we did both. Just six weeks ago we were driving through tiny towns of western North Carolina, and today we are weeks away from moving to our mountain home.
That one small leap led to the next small leap which has led to much bigger leaps beyond my imagination at the time. That unsure and faithful yes has led to even more “yeses.” Yeses to things we have always dreamed of doing. I am reminded that when we take that first leap, we don’t need to know where we will land. We don’t have to see the other side, we just need faith that there is another side. We don’t have to feel the solid ground beneath us, we just need to believe there will be solid ground when we need it. I am reminded of this time and time again with every faithful leap, big and small, we continue to make.
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