Do something different, it’s good for you..

No, I’m not talking about drinks…but you could do that as well. What I’m talking about is doing something different. Shaking things up in your life and doing something you have never done before.

The other day I was supposed to meet a friend for lunch. I thought we would just go to one of the usual places. Don’t get me wrong, I love those spots and the food is always good. But she suggested we go somewhere different, somewhere I have never even heard of. Boiling Springs. It’s in Pennsylvania and I am from PA so how have I never been there or never even heard of the place is beyond me. She asked if I had time and I did, so off we went to Boiling Springs.

There is nothing that clears your mind like going somewhere you have never been before. While the same old places are quite rewarding and you know what to expect and most of the time are not disappointed, it is refreshing to boldly go where you have never gone before. I was excited…to go to lunch. Going to places from my youth is comforting and I love that feeling but going somewhere new is exciting. And I don’t get a lot of excitement these days.

The place where we ate was beautiful. It sits on the banks of the Yellow Breeches Creek and the water is indeed, well… boiling. It isn’t boiling from temperature but thats another story. Look it up. The food was excellent and service was great, and I thoroughly enjoyed both the lunch and the conversation. But I have to say what really blew me away was the town itself. It truly captured my heart and soul. We drove around to check it out and it was such a quaint, old fashioned little town it looked like it hadn’t changed in decades, but in this instance that is a good thing. Every street we drove down was more engaging than the one before. I could totally picture myself living in one of the cottages by the water and walking around there every morning.

This little trip touched me in such a way that it boggled my mind.  So I was thinking about this and the fact that it was still on my mind at all. And I think the reason is because it made me break away from the norm, from the usual and mundane. It “shook things up” a little. So, because of this I gave myself a challenge, a challenge to visit somewhere new at least once a month. I think we all need that, we need to feel the way we did as children every time we did something new and the world was full of wonder and excitement. It was so nice to feel that way again. We tend to get stuck in our lives by going the same places for dinner, the same spot for vacation and even the same place to shop.

Maybe I won’t limit it to new places, maybe new things as well. One new place and one new thing every month. Why not? What can it hurt? I’m not saying it is wrong to go to the old familiar places and I certainly will continue to do that, but I want to have this feeling again and I want have it often.

In a world full of such negativity and this “growing older” thing that is also happening, I want to find things to make me feel the way I felt the other day. Wouldn’t it be great to have exciting new things and places to experience? They wouldn’t have to be expensive or far away. This place was not far at all and so worth the trip. Really you wouldn’t even have to leave the house to do some things. You could learn a new language, a new skill or craft, a new food or even just read a different kind of book(say you always read fiction, now you would try non-fiction). My son and his wife changed their living room furniture around last week and even the kids felt the difference.

Change is good for us. It can be scary and uncomfortable, but it forces us to grow and look around at what else is out there. It makes us think and makes our brain work harder. So lets “Shake it up.” Let’s embrace each and every moment we are here and get excited again. What are you going to try? Where are you going to go? Let me know, I might want to go there too!

“Shake it up, people!”