Day 3: 100 Days of Summer

"Give it a try, give it a try. You won't know what it's like until you give it a try."

These are the words to a little song that I sing to my daughters to get them to try new foods. It happened when we were sitting together at Sweet Tomatoes one evening, and I had given them a plate full of little bits of every type of vegetable served in the salad line, hoping they'd try each one. Looking back, perhaps 2 or 3 new ones would have sufficed (lesson learned!), but my 2 and 4 year old (at the time) were overwhelmed with the number of unfamiliar choices, that they wouldn't touch a thing on their plate. We are big Daniel Tiger fans, who has a song for every type of child life-lesson, but in the moment I could not think of the "try this new food please" song, so I improvised and made up the little jingle. And wow, the power of a little song made the difference! They gave a few of them a try, and they even liked some of them!

The way I see it, I have 100 days of summer to start "giving things a real try." So many things that in my youth I imagined I would do "when I grew up" are still not done. And I think I'm a grown up now, so I should have done some of them by now right? Being a musician, I've always been passionate about music. However, despite my mother's constant requests, I never recorded any of the songs I wrote. This morning, I got a text message from some good friends saying they would be at our church writing and recording music, and if I wanted to join them. I thought about it. I thought of all the reasons I wanted to do it, and then (per the usual) I began to think of all the reasons I "couldn't." I have laundry I haven't finished. So much paperwork left to do for the child care business. My kids have a play date this morning, and then they'll have to nap this afternoon. Did I mention the laundry?...

However, it's the spirit of giving things an honest try that I'm participating in the GiveIt100.com challenge (see my Day 1 blog), I realized if I really was willing to go, I could make it happen. And I did. My mother was graceful enough to watch the girls during nap time, while I snuck away a couple hours to participate in this songwriting, jam session. It was invigorating! It was a rekindling of my spirit, of the joy that I find in music. It was as though a battery in my soul that had been tucked away and hidden since I had my second child (put away to make room for life, only to be forgotten) had suddenly been refueled. Does that make sense? Remember, I'm still new to this blogging thing, and it's hard to put the experience into words.

So I'll leave you with this: Please think about the dreams you've tucked away in the closet somewhere, waiting for the "right time" to pull it out, and just jump in and get started! Even if you take it just one day at a time. :)