at the risk of looking ridiculous.

A few times now, my sisters and I have taken a kickboxing class at the local rec center.

There is one thing you need to know about me and kickboxing. When it comes to anything involving any sort of rhythm, I'm pretty uncoordinated. So are my sisters, something they'll willingly admit, as well. This means that we carefully avoid looking at each other so we don't get off track (and that we get off track anyway). It also means that I am often counting out the steps under my breath (left-right-kick-hold, left-right-kick-hold).

But finally, after the third class, sometimes I'm comfortable enough with the pattern that my mind wanders a bit. This is what happened last week, when I heard a song that took me back 20 (!) years to high school. I thought about how afraid I was then (and later) to look the least bit silly. I thought about how I avoided doing anything I wasn't sure I could do well, how I so rarely took a risk. I thought about how I would never have done anything like this (kickboxing) in front of other people. I wonder about how much that girl missed out on - how many experiences, how many relationships, how many opportunities to see God move.

Sometimes I wish I could go back and have a chat with that Kristy. I wish I could tell her that you only need to really be worried about the opinions of the people that matter to you, and sometimes not even then. That learning to laugh at yourself is an important life skill. And that stepping off a cliff, while scary, can also be exhilarating, because that's when you see God move in extraordinary ways.