How going to Disney world taught me to give up control…

Over the Labor Day weekend, I was able to take a trip to Walt Disney World for the Food and Wine Festival (review coming in another post) and no matter how long it has been since I was there last I seriously cannot wait to go back. There is something about putting those ears on my head that makes me be a happy kid again. I had the privilege of visiting Disney World with my niece Ashley and we had a WONDERFUL time. While I was there I gained a few life lessons that I wanted to share with you…

Let me explain… I like to control things. Most things in my life I can make work out as I would like, however, this time I was going to park with only 1 other person which meant I would need to not dampen her fun because I don’t like roller coasters or rides in general. My idea of a fun ride is the Dumbo ride or maybe Winnie the Pooh’s ride. I don’t like roller coasters because I can’t control them, and that is the whole point, right? To give up control as they toss you all around. Wow wee how thrilling! NO. It’s not a thrill for me. For a girl like me it is an exercise in trust, and I rarely trust anyone fully, never mind trust a machine not to toss my rump out of the seat as it hurls me down a hill at a high speed! Against my intuition, I got on the first ride with Ashley and well…I will let the picture speak for itself…and feel free to laugh cuz I sure did…

That girl in the back row is the same girl you see below…

My mind made the ride into a very uncomfortable experience for me. While it did zip me all around it wasn’t the worst in the world. My mind made it a terrifying experience. But after I got off, I realized it wasn’t actually that bad. Isn’t that the same in life. We can make things so much harder than they need to be because we wanted to control it. The more I let go of my need to control and trusted my niece and the genius of the Magic Kingdom the more fun I had and you can see it slowly show on my face…

I spent most of the ride saying I don’t like to be jostled as I was jostled all over the place LOL

Finally starting to have fun!

I am in the back row having the time of my life. I definitely can understand how the little girl in the front felt. I have been there sweetheart (see that first picture if you managed to forget, lol).

During this day I had an exercise in letting go over and over and enjoying the unknown. While I will probably not do that in all instances of my life, I did learn that doing this is worth the risk, sometimes (lol). It is something I think of each day since I left Disney World. I learned that the payoff to trusting just a bit more and letting go like my girl Elsa likes to say is that you can experience unexpected joy. And who couldn’t use a bit more of that?