Always Have An Out

Early in our marriage, my husband worked for a large software corporation that had clients all over the world. He traveled almost every week and I learned how to be, in a sense, a single parent most weeks.

I am by nature a very dependent temperament, but necessity taught me to be independent in almost every part of my life. I had branched out quite nicely in my independence until faced with my biggest challenge of independence.

My husband was assigned a client in London, Great Britain. He was scheduled to be onsite for two weeks. I decided I would join him and explore a country I had only seen in books and television.

It was so exciting yet overwhelming all at the same time to be in a different country. I looked over all the day trip tours that were available from the hotel and picked some that I really wanted to experience.

Since my husband would be working every day, all day, I would be doing most of these tours independently which began to seem quite challenging, even horrifying. I would be alone in a city and country that I was not familiar with and communicating with people that I thought would speak English but it didn't quite come out like my Southern drawl!

As I was getting more and more anxious about stepping out on my own, my husband gave me an out. He told me that if I got separated from a group or turned around on a street and didn't know where I was, I could just hop in a cab and tell him the name of the hotel and he would bring me right back to familiar ground.

That became what I termed "my out". After that, I had the time of my independent life! I went on many tours and saw so many sights that I would have most certainly missed if I had stayed in my safe box in the hotel.

This "out" concept created a transition in my life from a place of feeling stuck in a box with no options, to stepping into the freedom of knowing that there is always a choice outside of fear! Life happens outside of fear!!

Have you experienced being stuck in a box of fear thinking? Is your life being hindered by fearful thinking? Be brave and take the step of looking at your options. There is always an option to step into the freedom of life!

Discovering Life Together!

Martha