Today I had “lunch” with two really good friends of mine, Rachel and Kendralyn.  They are both counselors (CONGRATULATIONS to Kendy who just finished her program!) but we all met a few years back as teachers working on the same campus.

In case you’re wondering, lunch is in parenthesis because I don’t even know if it can be considered “lunch.”  Can it still be considered lunch if you sit and talk for four hours after you have finished eating?! 

Now, while those of you that know me might find it easy to believe that I might exaggerate every now and then (I cant imagine why, it’s not like I’m a DRAMA QUEEN or anything!!), I PROMISE I am not kidding when I say we were at the restaurant for five hours.  We had a lot to catch up on, and since none of us had anywhere else we had to be (the joys of being school employees), we took our time and enjoyed ourselves!

Kendy (l) and Rachel (r).  Aren't they gorgeous?!

We’re lucky they didn’t kick us out.  Although we did get a few funny looks from the employees a time or two. J

We ate at Fadi’s, a Mediterranean restaurant with awesome food!  I lovessss me some Mediterranean food!!  I went through a phase about two years ago where I was all about the hummus, pitas, Shawarmas, Fatoush, falafel, lamb shanks, and kabobs!  Oh, who am I kidding?!  I would still take those over a burger and fries anyday! 

Check out this goodness; I had the lamb shank with half cabbage salad and half artichoke salad.  Divine!  I think what I love the most about Mediterranean food is the strong, intense flavors…heavy with garlic, basil, and lemon.  Three favorite flavors ever…and in that order.

Yummy...and pretty darn healthy too!!!

  

I love the way the restaurant is decorated; even the bathrooms have a swanky feel. J  I told my friends that when I build my dream kitchen in my dream home one wall was going to look like this:

I especially love that they actually use those veggies!  Over the course of the day, since I was sitting facing the wall, I saw several employees take veggies from there for dicing, chopping, and cooking. #prettybutuseful

Out of all the things we discussed, one thing that Kendy said really stuck in my head.  Now remember, I’m a sucker for a good quote and have been collecting quotes since I was in the sixth grade.  So when she said it, the first thing I thought was that I needed to add it to my collection...and put it up on my wall! 

I’m not sure exactly what we were talking about, but she said that she constantly reminds herself that sometimes in life you have to “DO IT AFRAID.” 

DO IT AFRAID

Isn’t that amazing?!  And sooo true!  Sometimes there are things in life that scare the crap out of us – but we have to do them anyway.  We have to do the things that scare us the most, regardless of the possible outcomes or consequences.  Otherwise, we would let the fears in our lives paralyze us into inaction. 

Like Franklin D. Roosevelt so famously put it, in his 1933 inauguration speech,

“We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

 

His wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, was pretty wise herself and she once said,

“You must do the thing that you fear the most.”

That means putting aside our fear of rejection, fear of inadequacy, fear of incompetence, fear of whatever.  Easier said than done, I know, but what have you got to lose?  I think sometimes the worst thing is the fear of the unknown.  The fear of the woulda-coulda-shoulda, and of not knowing what would have happened had we just tried, that eats us up.

To Kendy’s credit, when Rachel and I told her how much we loved her mantra, she said she couldn’t take the credit because she had heard it in one of Joyce Meyer’s sermons.  Regardless of who said it, I think it’s magnificent and would like to thank my friend for speaking those words into my life.

So I challenge you to go out there and do it.  Whatever it is that you are scared of today, face your fears.  And when times get tough, and you want to turn back, remember what Joyce Meyer, and my friend Kendy said, and forge ahead and do it anyway.  DO IT AFRAID!