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7.20.2013

The Melting Point of Wax

When I joined the Leadership Wood Buffalo program in 2007, we started our epic journey in community leadership with a three-day retreat at Christina Lake Lodge. Those three days still hold a special place in my heart as they allowed me to spend some time away from the hustle and bustle of it all and to really get to know myself a little more.

One of the assignments we were given was to find an object or "something" that represented leadership to us. At the time, I really had no idea what to choose so thinking from more of a "personal leadership" perspective, I chose to share one of my favourite songs. A song by a band called Thrice, The Melting Point of Wax, signifies (to me) the risks we take in our lives to achieve something we really, really want. Sometimes those risks will be worthwhile and we will achieve great things. Sometimes, however, the risk will have been too great and we may fail - but, at the end of the day, I believe we'll never truly know what we are destined for if we don't take that first leap of faith. The piece of the song that speaks to me the most is:

"There's no promise of safety with these secondhand wings
But I'm willing to find out what impossible means.
I'll climb through the heavens on feathers and dreams
'Cause the melting point of wax means nothing to me."

Feel free to view the rest of the lyrics here. Or, better yet, download the song on iTunes and support great artists!

The reason I'm writing about risk and taking leaps of faith is because I feel lately like I'm at a turning point in my life...have you ever felt like that? This year is a special one in that it marks the 30th birthdays of me and some of my very close girlfriends. I'm not gonna lie, leaving behind my twenties makes me feel a sense of urgency and responsibility to get my proverbial shit together. It's really got me thinking about the last three decades I've been earth-side and what I've accomplished to date. It's also made me think about what my future goals are and now I completely understand why people have mid-life crises. In all of this thinking, I also realized that as of yesterday, I had exactly 30 Fridays before I turned the big 3-0 so I've decided that I'm going to do a fun little adaptation of the "30 Things Before 30" lists that you always see floating around on Pinterest.

Mine will simply be called "30 to 30" and rather than setting a specific list of things to do (because I'm horrible at keeping lists), I've decided that each week leading up until my birthday, I'm simply going to do one thing that I've always wanted to do but have not done because I've been too scared, lazy, tired, busy, shy, reserved, uncertain, etc... You name the excuse and I have probably used it at some point in time...

So my first leap?! Well, last night I finally took a deep breath, held my chin up high and sent in my application for full-fledged yoga teacher training in the fall! After having a little heart-to-heart with myself while trying to put together a letter of intent for the program, I realized I am sooooo ready for this and can't wait to share my journey with you!

Peace & Health,
Jen