Have you ever had an idea that you wondered if you could make it work?

Did you lose sleep at night running it over and over in your mind, searching out the pros and cons, the rights and wrongs, the hows and whys?

Did you share it with your friends, ask for advice on Facebook, or search out an expert?

Did you try jumping in all at once, or take baby steps to test it out?

We teach our children to be adventurous, to raise their hand and share their thoughts, and to try new foods.  We expect them to do things we never did ourselves, to speak for us when we cannot find our own voice, and to teach us how to use the newest technology that we do not understand.

For many of us, change is scary.  We like the known over the unknown.  Taking a chance means risking making a mistake, failing, or facing ridicule.  Taking a chance means we might need to show our weaknesses. Taking a chance is also how we learn our life lessons.

I like to think that the older I get, the wiser I become.  I let loose my inhibitions and step into situations that would have paralyzed me ten years ago.  Sometimes it’s more of a physical challenge: I cast out on open water, soar through the air, or push myself to exhaustion.

Other times the mental task seems just as daunting:   applying for a new program, sharing my thoughts, or taking on the terrifying task of parenting teenagers.

This week, two of my writer friends are taking on their own new challenge by bringing their idea into reality.  Val and Kathy have created a website, Bonbon Break, designed to provide a space to share their thoughts, wisdom, humor and ideas with like-minded women, and I am honored to be one of the contributing writers in their first edition with my parenthood post on teaching social responsibility.

If you’re looking for a little inspiration, some interesting thoughts, and a great example of making your ideas come true, visit Bonbon Break!  You’ll be happy you did.

Jennifer Wolfe

Jennifer Wolfe, a writer-teacher-mom, is dedicated to finding the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of life by thinking deeply, loving fiercely, and teaching audaciously. Jennifer is a Google Certified Educator, Hyperdoc fanatic, and a voracious reader. Read her stories on her blog, mamawolfe, and grab free copies of her teaching and parenting resources.

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In 2011, The Golden Sky by EC Stilson became one of the hundred best-selling books about loss on Amazon! Wayman Publishing is now excited to announce the release of Bible Girl—the prequel to The Golden Sky. This is the amazing true story of a hilarious girl trying to find her way through the teen years. Bible Girl was just accepted into the Barnes & Noble catalog and will be .99 for a limited time HERE.

The book practically cried for me to spare its life, and for a moment I thought I’d rather burn in Hell than lose something my brother had given me in love. The pastor nudged me, though, and my heart turned to ice.

Will he help her, or make things even worse than they were before?

Jennifer Wolfe

Jennifer Wolfe, a writer-teacher-mom, is dedicated to finding the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of life by thinking deeply, loving fiercely, and teaching audaciously. Jennifer is a Google Certified Educator, Hyperdoc fanatic, and a voracious reader. Read her stories on her blog, mamawolfe, and grab free copies of her teaching and parenting resources.

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Sometimes we all are so caught up in how we want things to be. Who will win an election, who will find the right relationship, what college our kids will be accepted to, what treatment will be found for an illness, what job might open up for us. We face these all-important, and sometimes critical, issues in life. However, I wonder if perhaps we are all just trying a bit too hard to make it happen.

I will admit I am a cerebral person. I stay up in my head all the time. I like it there. I like to think, to ponder, to imagine what if. I have never been one to jump into huge risks, or vocalize my thoughts immediately as they come to mind. I keep them ‘up there’.

Interestingly, I also wear them on my sleeve. Emotional, shy, sensitive – all adjectives used to describe me my entire life. It’s hard to feel intensely and try to keep it inside. I’ve never been good at lying or keeping secrets. Mix that all together, and I often find myself missing opportunities, misunderstood, or thinking of what I ‘should have said’ 30 minutes after the occasion ended.

So in the last few years I have kind of surprised myself. Surprised my family and my colleagues, too. I’ve decided that I needed to let these feelings and thoughts out of my head and heart and put them in motion. Like a slow leak in a balloon, I let the control in my head move towards my center. Using my contemplative nature, instead of thinking it out I let it settle and sink in. I acted on intuition over intellect and to my great surprise, amazing things started to happen.

I found myself in the mountains of Nicaragua, along with my children and complete strangers, mucking in the dirt and rocks to build a school. I found myself teaching and coordinating a new program at my school to help kids and families find their confidence and success. I found myself on a zip line flying over the jungle to challenge my fear of heights. I found myself applying and earning a government grant to study global education, with plane tickets for Washington D.C. and Indonesia. I found myself writing, testing the voice that began to emerge and finding new writing friends to share and learn with. Now, I find myself writing for Yahoo, my thoughts and words about education and parenting shared with an unlimited audience.

None of these experiences would have happened if I remained locked inside my head. There are too many reasons I could create to explain them away. There are too many risks, too many challenges, too many other people who would be better suited. Except that, the universe is taking care of me.

My writing friend Brenda Moguez, who shares her head and heart with the universe on a regular basis, writes in her blog ‘Passionate Pursuits’, “just once, this singular time, I’d like a leg up, the map, the golden key, the spoonful of sugar, the ruby slippers, and one of the wishes Genie gave to Aladdin. It’s ballsy of me to ask, I know, but I have good reason. I looked at karma’s life ledgers and I am showing a substantial overpayment. The same auditors, who tally the votes for the Academy Awards, keep karma’s book, so the numbers are accurate. Trust me.”

I couldn’t agree more. Karma’s life ledgers do keep the tally marks next to our name. Santa Claus does know who has been naughty and who has been nice. Cinderella’s fairy godmother does turn a pumpkin into a carriage so she can meet her handsome prince. And the Blue Fairy does bring Pinocchio back to life after he proves his bravery, honesty and selflessness.

But all of those magical experiences would remain in the ledger book if not for one thing: the voice and actions that put them out into the universe to be answered. As the great philosopher Bill Cosby says, “In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.”

Is this what holds so many of us back?  It’s our lives; we have to want it to happen.

That, and a bit of fairy dust.

Jennifer Wolfe

Jennifer Wolfe, a writer-teacher-mom, is dedicated to finding the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of life by thinking deeply, loving fiercely, and teaching audaciously. Jennifer is a Google Certified Educator, Hyperdoc fanatic, and a voracious reader. Read her stories on her blog, mamawolfe, and grab free copies of her teaching and parenting resources.

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I saw a shooting star this morning.  I was driving on a two lane highway along the Truckee River, my whole family snug in the car.  At the same instant in the front seat my husband and I caught the star as it propelled against the midnight blue pre-dawn sky.  In the backseat all the kids got was a scientific explanation of how it happened. They missed it.

As I have each time I’ve seen this phenomenon, I made a wish.  I won’t say what it was – that would jinx it, right?  What I will say is that any chance I have gotten over the last 15 years I have been wishing the same wish without fail.

What would happen if you got what you wished for?

I saw a quote on someones Facebook wall that said, “Karma is a bitch.  So make sure that bitch is beautiful.”  I think about karma all the time.  Sometimes it’s the only way I can make sense of the senseless in the world.  But rarely do I think of karma in a negative way.  To me, karma happens in the ‘pay it forward’ sense.   What we do in our lives, how we treat others, the work we commit to, the love we share, the thoughts we think-all are how we place our spirits in positive alignment.

To think of karma in the negative sense may be comforting on some level, but productive?  Positive?  Peaceful?  I think not.  Karma isn’t fate – we all enter each day with unlimited choices.  Why some choose the negative and some the positive is unclear to me – to choose hate or harm over love and peace doesn’t make any sense.

As the sun rises over the mountain tops and the moon and stars fade for another day, once again I am challenged.  It is up to me to make my wish come true – no genie with a magic lantern or fairy godmother is in sight.  My wish remains inside my heart, but my actions I wear on my sleeve for everyone to see.

So next time you see a shooting star, blow out birthday candles, or find a dandelion in bloom, be careful what you wish for – you might just get it.

Jennifer Wolfe

Jennifer Wolfe, a writer-teacher-mom, is dedicated to finding the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of life by thinking deeply, loving fiercely, and teaching audaciously. Jennifer is a Google Certified Educator, Hyperdoc fanatic, and a voracious reader. Read her stories on her blog, mamawolfe, and grab free copies of her teaching and parenting resources.

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