Lucy and Ethel Jump Off the Cliff

Okay, I am admitting my age by using this scene from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.. I remember watching this movie as a teenage girl in high school and I'm sure I was drooling over Robert Redford.  I haven't seen it since, but this scene is the one that played over and over again in my head last week as Ethel and I took the jump off the cliff. (if you haven't been around my blog much, Ethel is my precious friend and I am Lucy... we have experienced life together for decades... tears and laughter)

I need you to change the characters to Lucy and Ethel instead of Butch and Sundance.  You can take the gun out also... we would probably harm ourselves more than do any good with a gun.  We both were in the same situation.  Each had an enemy coming after us...and no, we aren't outlaws.  We were feeling the heat down our backs.  We both needed to make a jump.

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Last Tuesday we both nudged each other off the cliff.  Yes, afraid of drowning!  Yes, afraid we are going to die! Yes, afraid of failure!  Yes, afraid of the unknown!  Yes, afraid we are too old!  But what could we do?  So we grabbed each other's hands....took a running start....and jumped.   Either the jump will kill us, or the rapid waters below, or those swirling waters will take us to a new destination.

Ethel jumped back into college. Yes! at the age of 57 she re-registered for college classes.  She hasn't attended school since the 70's... right about the time of this movie.  She is now a co-ed!

Lucy marched herself down to the courthouse with forms in hand.  She went straight in and registered not ONE, but TWO DBA's.  Doing Business As!  After reserving her business names she went straight to the bank for her new business account.  By the afternoon she had two clients!  You see Ricky still isn't getting any gigs to play his bongos....so you know Lucy, always there with a plan.

The screaming ladies were still kicking and yelling at the end of the day, as they were falling into the waters below.  What had they gotten themselves into!

Ethel went to the bookstore.  Lucy went to the bookstore and library.  They both have a lot to learn.  While Ethel is now a new CO-ED, Lucy is now a business owner.  Lucy has been a business owner before, but then it was for fun.... unemployment has made this venture a necessity.  Lucy typed her fingers off setting up to business web-sites, ordered business cards and even purchased one of those dumb magnet signs for her car.

The texting and phone calls haven't stopped since last week.  We both express our anxious feelings, our doubts, our excitement and the realization that life is now changing faster than our old bones can adjust.  She is writing out notes in class.  I am writing out a business plan.  She is meeting new classmates. I am learning to network with strangers.

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Last summer, I filled my sand pail with intentional living.  I learned how you have to be intentional in life or it just drags you along.  That lesson will go into this summer as I balance my new businesses, time with family, time with Benjamin, my teenage son taking college classes, my teen's work schedule and just normal life.  Instead of a sand pail this summer, mine will be a mop bucket and a bucket of paint.  You see my Leah and Rachel businesses are a cleaning business and decorating business.  One is regular weekly work, while the other will allow my creative side to come out from time to time.  They are coming together as I learn how to market myself...oh, my....so out of my comfort zone.  I am being stretched...so if the jump didn't kill me, the rocks just might!

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Hopefully this summer will be clean and bright as I use my buckets!  I wish you a fun-filled summer...maybe you are needing to jump off the cliff.  Who knows where the water will take you.