The Idea

My brother John and I read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller.  When we were done- we thought- "how do we write a better story for our lives?"   Only, I would stop there...at the thinking part of that last sentence.  You see, I love ideas but I hate the part where you actually have to do something about them.  It means you are going to alter your state of "normal." Normal for me is getting the same drink at the same Starbucks and hoping for the same baristas.  Normal is cooking the same three meals (oh, did I fool you into thinking I cook most days? Sorry.)  My point is: I like normal.

My sameness has fooled me into thinking A) I'm busy and B) I'm establishing relationships with the people I see in my sameness.

But when I allowed myself to think about it...

I learned A) I am not busy  B) I don't know anyone.  I know my Baristas names, but I can't tell you anything about their lives.  (lie lie lie.  I know a lot of people.  However, I don't know the ones that I see on a regular basis while all the people I actually know are at work.)

And now, lets go back and read that last bit there and read it again as if you just learned I had died.   Wouldn't you have wished my last words were that I lived a full and busy life filled with people I knew well and loved.  That my life was diverse and full of experiences I welcomed with a smile on my face on a daily basis.  Isn't it sad that in the end I could be known as the "yeah, I know that girl....she was always walking into a Starbucks....yeah yeah...yup she never brushed her hair- wow- that's a shame.  What was her name?"    (Did I ever mention my nickname is Morbid Mary.  When in doubt I talk about a worst case senerio that ends in my death.)  

And so my brother, who has his own story to tell about his reactions to the book, had this incredible idea...and it did not include staying the same.   It didn't include thinking about doing things differently...it included DOING different things (and here's the kicker) regularly.   

31 things to be precise.  

For the month of July, we are going to do one new thing a day.   Not all my activities are going to be hard or life changing but they are going to be new to me.  I'm going to step out of my sameness and see what life is like when I just do one thing different each day.

And I'm not just doing this because I realized I didn't actually know the people that I see on a regular basis.  I'm doing this because:
A) I'm a stay at home mom.   Yes I'm busy....but don't let me give you that excuse.  He does nap and I do watch more TV that I would like to admit and really...don't I have something better to do with my time?
B) I am getting sick of saying I'm bored and that there is nothing to do.  That is a lie.  I'm just too lazy to do it.  
C) I realized that most people spend their entire lives looking for purpose and yet every day- do the same thing.  I am one of those people.  I hope that by living my life differently- It will help me to get in the habit of saying YES to life giving opportunities so that slowly I might come closer to understanding my purpose.  

Before I send this blog post out into the world- I just wanna know one thing:

Will you do it with me?

-Mary Kay   
(please note- if I poured over this blog post to make sure it read well and was grammatically correct, I would never send it out.  I'll be writing every day so give me a break and just try to figure out what I meant when what I wrote didn't quite read like Tolstoy ok?)  

EDITORS NOTE:
There is a good chance you are reading this but you have never met me.  Well- here you go.  

A) I don't take myself too seriously but I promise to take this challenge seriously.  and B) I hope that at the end of this experience I can post this beautiful picture of myself next to an even MORE beautiful picture of myself.... like a before and after photo where you know the only real difference is that the person brushed their hair and put make up on.  Yeah...for all you readers that haven't met me....this is me and the beautiful mug my husband gets to see every morning.  Who WOULDN'T want to wake up next to me?   and if this picture hasn't scared you- I hope you come back to my blog often for more pictures and reflections of all the new experiences I'm having.