Yes

This week I chose to say yes.

Yes to everything—the new, the scary, the unexpected. The purposeful and the pointless. The boring and the fun.

And I tried to make it a wholehearted yes as best I could.

You see, I realized one day how my answer is almost always “no.” Why is that? Why is it so easy to hold back if an idea doesn’t originate in my own heart and mind? What is it that makes me distrust everything that comes from outside of myself?

It doesn’t matter if it’s a family member, a friend, or even God asking me to do something, come somewhere, enjoy something… it’s easier to say no. To hold myself at arms length and remain aloof until I’ve weighed the options decided how involved I want to be.

It occurred to me that this holding back and hesitancy can’t be a part of having a joyful and fulfilled life, so I decided to spend my last week in my DTS responding with a confident, crazy, joyous “YES” to all things.

And I am so glad that I did.

It’s not as if I stumbled upon a magic formula to constant happiness, but I think something changes when you decide to always try to say yes (using discernment, of course) to the things that find you.

When my heart is in a position of always saying “no” it is focusing on the likelihood of disappointment. On a lack of trust for anyone or anything outside of my own heart and mind. That heart posture effectively says that no one else is worth my time, my love, my risk. No one. Not my friends, my family, or even my God.

Who would want to live like that..? It’s a wall that, though breachable, keeps out so much good. It keeps you from getting hurt, but it also keeps you from receiving love, and even more importantly, from giving love to others.

But, when I choose to say yes, my heart is saying that it expects great things. That life is good, and that joy is coming. That beauty is in this world, and there is light everywhere if only you choose to see it. It says that the people I surround myself with are worth taking risks for. They are worth going out of my comfort zone for. They are worth taking off the armor and shields that we pick up throughout our lifetimes to keep ourselves safe. 

They are worth giving the benefit of the doubt.

It says that I am brave enough to let myself make mistakes, and courageous enough to love people even though people are as prickly as cactuses and being close to them without being covered with armor hurts sometimes.

I’m not saying that it’s wrong to say no or to have boundaries. I think that in order to have balance in your life, you must know where to draw the line. But for someone like me who has no problem drawing hard lines in the sand, it’s good to exercise saying “yes” for a change.

It puts my heart in a place where light can get to it easily and make it grow. It’s a choice I can make that brings joy and trust within my grasp.

So here is to many more weeks where I choose to say “yes” as often as I can.