I remember how it felt to move to Phoenix – adventurous, intrepid, liberating! I was only 24 and had been married for almost a year. We had seven days to make the decision about moving, sight unseen, to a city with a population of more than half my entire home state. The company for which Keith signed on to work packed us up and moved us. This was a career move, the adhesion of a new couple to each other, the embarkation of a newly-formed family into a dessert landscape of possibilities . We were absolutely giddy!

I can recall what it was like to quit a high-profile, high-stress job I had years ago. My resting heart rate was well into the 90’s, my chest burned tight, I had not slept soundly in months, and I rarely saw my family. It was a pressure cooker environment made worse by an arrogant, tyrannical boss, an impossibly heavy workload for one person (me!), and management who believed the ends justified the means. I had been looking for a way out, and finally, sitting in my car outside the doctor’s office after being warned that I could have a heart attack at only 31 years old from the overwhelming stress, I conjured some chutzpah and quit with no notice over the phone. I felt emancipated!

Life has its way of maneuvering us into new territory. Relationships ebb and flow, stress compounds, circumstances evolve. At a moment in time, we are enterprising and courageous, optimistic and hopeful. Later, we get disillusioned and become cynical. Our work burns us out, and our homes get crowded. We create contentment, then we look for upgrades. Regardless of where we are on the continuum of age, social status, or economics, one principle holds true…

Making the decision to do something new is its own kind of sweet deliverance.

When you make the conscious decision – THE CHOICE – to take on a new project, create something, leave one place and arrive at another, you spawn a beautiful sense of optimism. If, deep down, you didn’t think it was possible, you wouldn’t do it, right? You have hope. You are energized. You are motivated.

The opposite of that is never making a choice. You sit, stagnant and immobile. Wedged into a crevice, you tolerate the status quo. You can’t look forward for looking down, or worse, for looking back. You change nothing, so nothing changes. You are stuck.

ANY CHOICE will do, too! No decision is too small…or large! Rearrange your bedroom? Host a movie night? Book airline tickets to Switzerland? Put your house on the market? Whether your decision to do something is seemingly small or dauntingly large, once you put it in motion, a spark ignites! Your whole mindset shifts! The DELIVERANCE is real. I use that word intentionally. You truly have the power to rescue yourself, to be someone new, to realize new joy.

My journal entries from Fall 2023 through January 2024 are hard to read. I look back over the pages and find days I could only scribble in frustration, starting with penmanship that resembled Courier type for a few paragraphs morphing into pages of illegible, bitter scrawls of agitation. I was stressed, tired, and floundering. I appreciated the chaos and the hustle, but I longed for order and calm. I loved my dance families, but I missed my own family terribly. I knew what I wanted, but I didn’t know how to get there. I needed a change. I prioritized. I made lists of pros and cons. I asked God what to do. Pages later, I had acted on my decision to sell my studio…and shifted. Sweet deliverance!

I want to encourage you. Making the choice to DO something will give you that sense of liberation you find so elusive. Plans will get you out of a rut. Reservations will have you eager to explore. Enrollment will send you toward an objective. Resignation will free you. Applications make new beginnings possible.

Just DO. Stop wishing and setting “goals” for a future that might not come, and get busy. Start looking and acting like the person you want to be. Make the calls, send the emails, and do the research. Vocalize your desires, and speak as if they are already yours. MAKING something to look forward to changes everything.

My prayer is for you to have that sweet deliverance for which you long for in your own journal or in your own mind. I hope your frenzied jots turn into smooth curves and your tumultuous thoughts settle into peaceful waves. Your heart could use something to look forward to, and I hope you’ll be inspired to listen to your heart.

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