Do one thing every day that scares you.
—Eleanor Roosevelt

It’s a challenge I’ve been quick to quote but slow to practice. Except for last night when I stepped up to the microphone for the very first time and read some of my poetry aloud to a room of perfect strangers. Some of them fairly famous strangers.

I was sure I read too fast. I stood at the podium wishing I’d edited just a little bit more. I fumbled over a line. My palms were sweaty.

I felt utterly alive.

I sat down. Diane Tucker stood up. Her words flew. Lines, weighty, pressing, playful. Not one of them hitting the floor. It made me want to get up a hundred times more so I could read like her. One day.

When was the last time you chose to do something that scared you?