Tuesday, April 8, 2014

G is for Go For the Gusto

If you're looking for the Hodgepodge questions, you'll find them here

So I'm something of a chicken. About a lot of things. This may surprise some of you reading here who take note of our international travels and our moving overseas with teenagers and our penchant for going-seeing-doing, but it's true. And you may wonder how a chicken copes.  


She marries a rooster, that's how.

And the rooster sometimes needs to grab his chicken by the arm (wing?) and say, 'You're going to love this!' 

And sometimes she does.  
Other times not so much, but at least she didn't miss it, right?


One of the things I've learned to appreciate about married life is the way hubs and I can approach new situations from opposite mindsets, and meet somewhere pretty close to the middle in a place that works for us. I think it's called compromise. Hubs no longer immediately leaps at all things new, and I resist immediately digging in my heels thereby forcing him to convince me xyz really will be a good thing.  


Hubs recognizes that sometimes my sense of caution is warranted.
I appreciate his spirit of adventure.

I would never have suggested we move overseas with children entering adolescence. I'm sure if I'd been given the offer, I would have allowed my initial reaction to rule the day.  My initial reaction went something like this-We can't do that. We've got teenagers. What about my job? What about high school? Driving? The Distance? The Metric System? The Adjusting? 

What about everything???

Without hubs encouragement, his confidence in our ability to work as a team, the way he says just what I need to hear in order to feel brave, well I would have missed the most fun adventure of my life so far.


I appreciate the way hubs not only participates in life, but embraces it wholeheartedly.
And he respects my need for a little more information, to see what something might look like before I commit.

As my daughters have become young adults I've realized that I want them to be more rooster than chicken. It took me until the age of 43 to truly understand that life is an adventure, and that adventure doesn't have to equal danger. When it does, then by all means be more chicken, but most opportunities that have come our way have not been physically dangerous. They've been mentally and emotionally challenging, experiences that have stretched and grown me in ways I'm glad I grew.


Sitting in suburbia its so easy for me to forget there's s a great big world out there. A world full of people and experiences and incredible beauty made by the One who holds it all in His hands. I want my daughters to know it's okay to put geography between us in order to follow God's path for their lives.  

That path may lead them to a house around the corner.
Or to a corner around the world.  


Somehow I think it will be more the latter, and while that is a little bit scary I'm honestly not afraid. I  know God has not only prepared my daughters for the lives they will live, He has also prepared me.


I'm thankful I married a rooster.
He helps me see there's an awful lot of living to be done outside the coop.

20 comments:

  1. LOVE this! Honey and I always say that together we are the best, our differences compliment each other
    I like the rooster/chicken combo!

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  2. AWESOME , AWESOME POST! (oops, sorry didn't mean to yell.) Thank you for putting it all in perspective. Blessings

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  3. You did surprise me that you think you are chicken. I would never have guessed. I'm not sure I could do what you have done in life, but then again, I guess God did not call me to that. At least not yet.

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  4. Do I ever get this!! I have to say I WAS a little surprised to read that YOU are a chicken when you are always soo busy going and doing as you said, and living overseas ect. Because I AM a chicken and everything like that I do is a HUGE push. But how do I do it? With a rooster of course!! You are soo right. The things he has encouraged me to do! And the caution he has learned from me! God certainly knows what He is doing doesn't He!? I wanted ALL of my kids to be nothing like me as well. I have ended up with 3 full roosters, and one combo, haha. A little of both of us in him. Never thought before about being chicken/roosters, but it is a perfect description. haha Enjoy your day!

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  5. Joyce, I never would've suspected you as being a chicken, with all of your adventures! Who knew?! Another great post, by the way!

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  6. I'm literally a Chicken. (People tell me I need to blog about that story, and I will, some day.) Anyhow, I appreciate this more than I can say. It's so easy to get comfortable in your little niche of the world, but I think that leads to stagnation. Growth is the only real adventure, and sometimes that comes through adventure. Heading over seas with teens, that's pretty epic. Way to go!

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  7. How great that you have figured this out and can write it down so eloquently. What a blessing to understand yourself so well. Thanks for sharing your "G" with us!!

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  8. These posts are Soooo. Spot. On. :) And you could be describing the Hubby and I to a tee! Yikes. I think we married clones. :)
    I'm working on embracing the chicken yard and beyond, myself... I mean, it can get lonely here in the coop! :)

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  9. Great post and love the rooster/chicken analogy. It is how the rooster approaches the chicken, my first husband 'ordered' me and my second husband gently persuades me - a real partnership.

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  10. I enjoyed reading your post. The pictures are great and you and your husband sound like a great team!
    Happy A-Z!

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  11. Wonderful analogy and outstanding pictures! You are a great writer and i loved reading every bit of this post.

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  12. Would like to revisit all those Holidays with you and the girls. I would have a hard time choosing between Dubai, Italy, Hong Kong or England. How about all. :)

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  13. By the sound of it, the two of you make a good match. One tempers the other.

    J.L. Campbell writes at The Character Depot and the Jamaican Kid Lit Blog.

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  14. I am the chicken and my husband is the rooster ... that's one of the reasons I married him ... to have a rooster to keep me from nesting 24/7 in the coop. ;-)

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  15. The story of "The Rooster and the Hen". What a great attitude and what a great blending of personalities. You two are a great match, complimenting each other. Have you ever shared with us how you met? Maybe I missed reading about that.

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  16. Such a delightful and insightful post today, Joyce. Thanks for sharing your beautiful love story.

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  17. Loved this G entry.....I'm the same as you more hesitant but glad in the end. Happy Tuesday!

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  18. What a great post. Thanks for sharing your family and your adventures.
    Blessings,
    Linda

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  19. And, once again I say, you are a fabulous writer. I'm never ready for your posts to end. I'm thinking that authoring a book should be on your bucket list most definitely! I love this post and love the analogy and I'm quite sure that Hubby and I could likely be described the same way. How funny!

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  20. Well isn't that just the cutest picture of you and dad at the end!!

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