~ Determination ~

“Every accomplishment starts with the decision to TRY.”

We went to Buena Vista Lake (located just out of Bakersfield, CA) for Memorial wknd.  It's been a family tradition on my hubby's side for years and years to gather everyone together.  It's great fun  - we ride the Sea-Doo's - play games - volleyball - make s'mores - eat lots of food (isn't that what vacationing is all about?!!) - play in the water - lay out - and sleep under the stars in our tent.  This year we bought a brand new tent after having the same army-green archaic tent since we've been married.  We also purchased 2 queen size air mattresses - wow..... pure luxury!

Well, I'm going to back up a little in my story I'm about to tell you - to the packing up the car part.  Since hubby was @ work, the opportune task fell upon me to load everything up.  Which included a new "cargo mesh carrier" that went on top of the car.  I don't have a car rack on top, so I had to get really creative on how I was going to secure it all down.  I decided to put the tent, the air mattresses, our ski vest's, and towels on top.  I got everything loaded up on top and zipped in the fabric cargo carrier and then went into my "creative - thinking out of the box" mode of how I was going to secure it all down.  However, I did have one huge obstacle in my way while figuring out how it would all work ... my wonderful 17 year old son - sitting inside the garage on a chair the entire time - telling me how, what I was doing, wouldn't work!!!  Well - to be honest, that fueled my fire of determination even more!!  I layed the bungee mesh over the carrier, brought each 4 corners underneath and into the inside roof of my car - then attached each corner cross-wise with "extra duty" bungee cords.  And then finished it off by strapping two of our surf board cinch straps across the entire thing - and again into the roof of the inside of the car.  And guess what?!!  Voila!  It WORKED!  It stayed in place and didn't move a hair to the lake and back home - 3 1/2 hours total each way.  And all the while that voice - telling me it wouldn't work ... finally quieted down when indeed he did see that it worked!

I have thought of that since.  And how we don't necessarily have literal outside voices telling us it won't work - but sometimes our own voices.  I told my daughter after this experience, to never let anything get in her way of making something work.  She witnessed this whole endevour as she herself was helping me, as I was giving her directions as they were coming to me.  It was a great lesson for all of us individually - for our own purpose.  There is    
A L W A Y S     a way to make something work!  There is always something lying around - whether physically or mentally - that you can find to use, to make it work.  Always! 
Don't ever give up. 
Keep that determination alive and you will accomplish whatever it is that you are out to do!!

♥