the adventure

I believe we are presented with opportunities to take a stand every day. The stand can be small or big, but it exists each day from the moment we wake up to the time our head hits our pillow.

Waking up today, I had no idea the path that lay ahead of me, but I continued onward with my routine: church then yoga later and some family time in the middle. At The Welcome Table Church, the congregation is active in standing for the equal rights of all, so of course they were planning on attending and supporting the Equality March for Unity and Pride downtown Fort Worth this afternoon. I had no idea it was happening. After the benediction, members of the congregation had changed into their church t-shirts, the pastor was passing out pride flags, and their was a buzz of adventure and justice in the air.

I told the pastor, my friend, bye and drove toward the predetermined place my mom and I had decided to go to lunch. But as I drove, all I could think about was going to the march. My pastor friend and former co-counselor of camp texted me telling me how much they'd love for me to join and he has a flag waiting for me. I knew that if my heart was telling me to go that I needed to be there. Sometimes what we hear is more than just intuition, it is God. And it is up to us to listen; however, in order to listen we must be prepared to make the decision that God asks of us.

Before I knew it, I was expressing this to my mom who of course understands my desire to stand for social injustice, racing home to trade my adorable LuLaRoe dress for leggings, a t-shirt, Nike ball cap and tennis shoes. I harnessed up Norah (my adorable dog, named after Norah Jones obvi and who is a year and a half if you don't know) and we jumped in the Tuscan with ice water ready to head downtown.

Honestly, I don't know if I would be so willing to jump at this pathway before now. God has led me through a variety of ups and downs the last three months, and where I sit now I would have never seen coming. I have always had a free spirit, a heart of a wanderer, and a contagious energy. I have not always shared these characteristics of myself with the correct people. God makes no mistakes, and so recently there have been a lot of big questions I have asked of Him that He is answering each and every day.

Norah loves going new places. The march was an out-of-body experience. The chants of "love not hate, makes America great" rang through the downtown streets of Fort Worth. Groups and groups of people stopped at the corners, outside of patios, hanging out of cars cheering for us, waving at us, and filming us. I couldn't get over it. Almost 70% of the people who were observing us held up their camera phones to record us. I didn't pull my phone out the entire time. I was in the moment of the march; I knew why I was there and I wanted to maintain the focus of what brought me to the event: God's whisper.

It isn't enough to seek God in your time of need or in your time of celebration. He will always be there because He is always with you. But we are asked to follow His calling for us in every moment. If we do not live in a focused state of mind, we could miss moments.

Restorative class tonight included a woman who sat and observed the entire class. I am not sure if she had never done yoga, was new to the studio or what. At first I felt slightly uncomfortable, a complete stranger sat watching me through an entire yoga class. Talk about a potential distraction. But then I caught myself. Just because I don't know this person, just because she may not be comfortable enough to act through the class, just because the environment surrounding me has shifted does not mean that I must change my behavior to defend myself. The opposite actually. I am responsible for making sure that she feel comfortable. Now, I am an introvert, so I definitely did not go over and speak to her. But I did smile warmly at her and greet her.

I used to believe that it was more beneficial to plan everything. Planning provides a sense of comfort and control. Unfortunately, we tell ourselves this in order to convince ourselves that we are making the right decisions. We shift our focus to this plan and in doing so we miss out on paths that He has designed. He will always offer a way back. You just have to be focused on the moment.