Community Voices for Health

By: Sandy Churchill

I trust in you, I trust in you, I trust in you… Maybe if I say it enough, like a mantra, my very being will absorb it as an unshakeable truth. Trust is hard. Having faith in the future can be juggling an overwhelmingly weighty barbell precariously on one shoulder, with your other arm tied behind your back. Some of us plow—or plod—through our days without much awareness of “big picture” goals or time sifting away. Despite being a frenzied, DIY mom who enjoys being busy, multi-tasking, and jobs of many kinds, I am not a plower or a plodder, without an ever-present awareness of life goals and the special challenges and opportunities gifted with my own “life path”.

So what to do when embracing new, sometimes drastic shifts to time and energy? As homeschoolers, my son and I are used to flexible work days that are not cookie-cutter schedules with a great deal of predictable routine. While certain activities such as karate and piano offer some structure on a weekly basis, and some classes have weekly time-slots, there is a lot of juggling and shifting because each day is different. Work on the go? Sure. Tote along homework in the car? Absolutely. But pull the net of a long-time job—complete with deadlines—out from under me? Yikes!There is an opportunity to shed the safe, the predictable, the known, for a chance to make a difference in a new way. The catch? No money in the meantime, no guarantee of success, and the near-promise of lonely hours plugging away at a project perhaps no one cares about. Sign me up! Seriously, what to do with all that self-doubt? Do I hush the practical quest for bill-paying, safe shores to give some ingenuity and risk a chance?

A favorite inspirational speaker of mine, Joyce Meyer, boldly advises us to “feel the fear and do it anyway.” This advice couldn’t be more timely with this risky decision right now. Spend time finishing and launching books with the hope that they will be published? Risky and terrifying and uncertain for sure. But what if? What if…? Were two more powerful words in the creative universe ever spoken?

And who is watching right now at this point in time at the Churchill household? A very intuitive teenager who is surely absorbing this lesson on trust, risk, confidence, and bravery. A husband who believes in me and has been waiting faithfully for his wife to leap off the ledge and trust her talent enough to take the plunge… Two daughters who have witnessed a life-long course in creative careers and quests into financial independence, spanning full- and part-time work, freelance, entrepreneurial endeavors, and work-from-home opportunities. Weight Watchers often asks “what is your why?” as its clients tackle weight loss challenges to become healthy and shed extra pounds. My “why” encompasses this core three, and many other family members and friends who believe in me—even when I struggle with the same faith.

What am I saying to them—intentionally or not—if I don’t even try? Is creative courage something I have instilled in them? Absolutely! How about risk and doing something you love? You bet! Well now is the time to walk the walk, so to speak. So trust will be another lesson this fall, as the leaves turn, and many hours are shifted from reliable paycheck to no-promises novel writing. Well? Nobody promised an easy road—but perhaps now is the time to venture ahead…