_edited.jpg)
Holly and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary this summer with an incredible trip to Napa / Sonoma. I will share more of that trip in future writings but today I want to share an experience from our hike in Muir Woods.
Muir Woods is the state park just north of San Francisco that is home to hundreds of acres of redwood trees. These trees are amazing in person. Tall, straight, majestic. I have seen incredible scenery in Montana, Colorado, and other places, but these trees are so unique and pictures don’t do it justice.
Now back to our time in the woods.
Towards the end of the hike, Holly could tell I was walking slower, as if I was not ready to leave. Knowing me well, Holly asked if I needed some quiet time before we left. I didn’t know what God was trying to tell me, but I had this nudge that I didn’t want to ignore.
So we split up for 20 minutes and each found our own quiet space. Within minutes of sitting on a rock and wondering why I had this nudge to hear from God, a clear phrase came to my head: ‘Branch out’. What? I heard it again, ‘Branch out.’
I know what you are thinking! How cliche to have a metaphor related to trees come to mind while sitting in a forest!
However, next, I heard, ‘branch out to others.’ Now, this was exactly geared towards me.
Our family came up with a vision statement a couple of years ago:
‘Rooted in God, we create a strong family unit to branch out to others to give love, hope, and laughter.’
To get called out on a specific part of our vision statement was unique. We have had this vision statement for a few years and I have not heard any phrase specifically called out before.
No more wandering.
My mind started racing. How do I branch out? The schedule already feels heavy at times, so how can I add to it and help others? What areas do I need to branch out? Who needs help? Who are the ‘others’?
Lots of questions and I still don’t have all the answers, yet I had a peace of being open to a season of new things. A few areas I am praying about and starting to step into are:
a new podcast called Win at Home First: I don’t know if I will even like interviewing people or if there is a need for another podcast in a saturated market, but I am going to look into it
live events: recently people have mentioned they enjoyed my live events/workshops and want to know when is the next one. So I am going to look to do more.
Online content: I have friends and clients asking for additional resources from Win at Home First or other topics I have coached on. So I will start exploring.
What about you?
How are you going to branch out this fall into new things? Is there something you want to try by the end of 2019? Any new work projects? What about in your personal life? A new hobby or adventure?
Maybe you want to create a family vision statement or a vision statement for yourself. Here are two resources for creating a vision statement:
in my book, Win at Home First, I provide tools to put together a personal and family vision statement.
at Five Capitals, I put together a webinar going over the tools. You can view the webinar here.
Vision statements are powerful to know where you and/or your family are headed. Without them, there can be a sense of wandering.
Please reach out if I can help in any way as you create your vision statement.
Thank you for reading.
Cory