on feeling afraid vs. making plans

Our girl from Ipanema

This weekend, we drove through beautiful canyons near Logan on our way to a campout with our ward. The last little while had us following switchbacks on a narrow road above a reservoir, and I was feeling pretty nervous. (I'm afraid of lots of things. And I have an overactive imagination when it comes to what-if's...what if suddenly I couldn't stop at one of these turns and we kept going and went  over the edge...?)

After driving along this way a bit, Ellie asked from the back seat "What if our car drove off over the cliff there?" To which I wanted to answer "Don't think about it Ellie - it's too scary to imagine!" But I didn't.

Then she added "And what if my window broke open?" (me - imagining terrible answers to that question, and still wanting to say let's talk about something else! But I didn't)

Then the real problem solving came "And then when we fell in the water, I could just climb out the window. And I could climb up on top of the roof and I'd use our van kind of like a boat!"

And I suddenly realized how wonderful and amazing that Ellie could imagine all these things, just like I was -  but not feel overly scared or worried or like she needed to try to think of something else,  but instead she just figured out what to do! (not that her plan was fool-proof in this case, but that wasn't the point anyway :)

 I tend to get scared of lots of things, so I just loved Ellie's sweet example of making plans and not just getting stuck feeling scared.  And I just love how sweet and happy and innocent and wonderful this little girl is too!