This:

Homemade Chickpea Crackers

…is not something I’m afraid of. I try new recipes all the time. Some of our friends find the amount of culinary experimentation that I/we do to be extraordinary, but it’s really not a challenge for me: it’s fun and a justifiable reason to put off the more challenging things that should be on my front burner. I and my husband have to eat, right? And eat healthily, at that. We like to entertain, so we can consider it research, as well. Plus, with cooking you have a somewhat easy way to explore one aspect of far-away cultures.

Note: this will be a brief existential musing.

Yoga teachers and entrepreneurs often challenge people to “Do something every day that scares you.” This similar dare resonates with me: “Don’t put off til tomorrow, what you can do today.” This takes the focus off of fear and puts it onto the havoc that procrastination wreaks. We only live once, and regrets are not useful. If there’s something that we want out of life, better to reach for it, now.

So, in that spirit, here are a few things I need to stop putting off:

• Taking a trip to the other side of the planet: maybe Thailand, Japan, the Philippines, or Hong Kong. The sights, the color, the food, the music, the stories: I want to see and learn more! I’m mainly intimidated by the cost factor of getting over there, but also by the language and other cultural hurdles that we may face, when traveling in those places. It’s really just money, which can be saved up, and maybe a few shots. Totally doable, with some planning.
• Looking at our house as if it’s really ours, and not a rental. I can paint the walls! Make changes! Go way more creative and colorful than I have, so far. I’ve found that I am far more willing to tangle with the garden (how scary can dirt be?) than with more permanent and sometimes more complicated features like walls and lighting fixtures. To this I need to say “meh” and just figure out the wiring and possibly make a goof with some paint.
• Beefing up my technical chops. I can launch a website – er, I could, once, awhile ago. Can I now? Can I build a mobile application? I want to. I just need to shelve another easier habit for a little bit, and sit down and figure out some things that are surely within my intellectual and technical grasp.
• Learn more about, and maybe how to create, Japanese calligraphy. It’s beautiful and expressive, and I’ve loved it since I first saw it, maybe 30 years ago. The notion of learning a new language that doesn’t even use the Roman alphabet is daunting, but far from impossible, for me. My brain needs the stretch, anyway.

On the other side of this, in the past year or two, I have gotten the nerve to take some steps into the scary places:

• We are getting the basement finished. For real. Progress on the bravery and house front! That we are paying someone to do it, is still a way of getting it done.
• I am teaching yoga, four times a week. Just over a year ago I was so scared to teach a class that I shook and cried, later, when I had to teach my first one in front of my mentors.
• My yoga is a business, albeit not really a booming one, cashwise. That’s progress on the life goal of owning/running a business.

Hurrah for those. The main thing I am scared of is procrastinating away this short time I have in this life.