Every fall, I say good-bye to my neighbors. It’s not because anyone is leaving. It’s because it’s winter. And it’s Minnesota.

After the leaves are raked and the trick-or-treaters are fed, frankly, it gets too cold to venture out beyond our cars until spring. With this dreaded long and super cold winter, it’s been worse than others. I feel as though I haven’t seen anybody on the cul-de-sac other than to wave.

So, I decided I wasn’t going to accept the status quo any longer, and I threw “caution” to the wind-chill. I invited my neighbors over for a Sunday night potluck dinner.

Now, I say caution not because I don’t know my neighbors – on the contrary, I’ve lived in my house for 20 years and I adore my neighbors. I brought both of my babies home to this house and my neighbors have watched my children grow into adults. But, we all get into a rut, and then there’s always an excuse – I’m too busy, the carpet needs to be cleaned, what should I serve? None of that was important – everybody said that they too had been thinking about changing things up, and they were glad someone took the initiative.

This got me to think about the importance of shaking things up once in a while. So, this month I’m going to look at examples of how challenging the status quo has had a significant impact.

I’m not suggesting that my shrugging off the shroud of winter is my Rosa Parks moment. But we all have to start somewhere, right?