Words of Comfort

I have recently found myself struggling with what appears to be a common dilemma for creative people like me. Following my dream or being 'realistic'. After everything I've experienced in life, I really don't see the point in the latter. I'm going to die. Don't know when. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe aged 89 surrounded by family. Maybe I'll trip over my shoe lace, land in a puddle and drown. I don't know. But I know about death and mortality. I know I don't fear mine. I fear losing people I love, but I deal with this by living life day to day as far as possible and making sure that those I love know I love them. What else can you do? The important things in life are usually the things you cannot control. I don't believe in security - I think it is an illusion. The only constant in the universe is change. Therefore, how can anything be secure? I don't mean to be negative or down in the mouth about this fact - quite the contrary. I find it liberating. People seem to spend so much of their time desperately seeking security - in love, in finance, in anything. Perhaps by accepting that nothing is secure or forever, you can forget about those pursuits and take a deep breath. What's stopping you from acknowledging this very moment? Are you in pain? Are you trying to avoid the niggling voice in your heart by distracting yourself with food, work, TV, anything? You are who you are now, in all your splendor, so why not take a moment to enjoy it? Look at the room in front of you. What is in it? Favourite books? Some cards from a recent birthday? What song is playing? Is there a mess? Does it matter? Can you pay attention to you, just now, in this moment, without worrying about all the things you have to do tomorrow? Someone said to me some time ago, "Don't worry about the future - the future takes care of itself". I'm fully aware that is easier said than done, but once you've survived, again and again and again, you KNOW it to be true. There really is only now.

“It’s in the present that lies the secret: if you pay attention to the present you will be able to enhance it.”- Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist.

It is hard to keep my head in the clouds and at least one foot on the ground. I could settle for tip toeing about the place, looking up at the stars. I might look daft, some people may think I'm complete nuts, but I don't care because they don't have to live my life, I do. And I want to enjoy it.

On the subject of what it is and what it means to be a 'creative' type, I've nicked the following from my friend's blog because it is so relevant to both of us.

Tidbits for Creatives from a great website, The Artististic Connection. http://www.sandysarttales.com/connection.htm
THOUGHTS FROMTHE ARTISTIC CONNECTION
The following passages are words of wisdom from Natalie Goldberg, poet and author of Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within. They are not exact quotes. Sandy lifted passages that she felt important and paraphrased others. Also, she changed some words from“writing” to “create” or “art,” to connect the collaborative mediums of words and paint. She recommends this book for artists of every kind. Her favorites are marked with an asterisk. Her own remarks and thoughts are written in italics.LONELINESS: Artists spend a lot of time alone creating. Being an artist in our society makes us lonely. (p. 105)Art is communication. Taste the bitterness of isolation, and from that place feel a kinship and compassion for all people who have been alone. Use loneliness. Its ache creates urgency to reconnect with the world.(p. 141) Loneliness always has a bite, but learn to stand up in it and not be tossed away. Creating art can be very lonely. Use it. Reach out of the deep chasm of loneliness and express yourself to another human being. (p. 140)To begin creating from our pain eventually engenders compassion for our small and groping lives. Out of this broken state there comes a tenderness for the cement below our feet, the dried grass cracking in a terrible wind. We can touch the things around us we once thought ugly and see their special detail, the peeling paint and gray of shadows as they are—simply what they are: not bad, just part of the life around us—and love this life because it is ours and in the moment there is nothing better. (p. 107)Anything we fully do is a lone journey. You can’t expect anyone to match the intensity of your emotions or to completely understand what you went through. You are alone when you write (paint) a book (a picture). Accept that and take in any love and support that is given to you. (pgs. 169-170)Years ago, on PBS Radio, I heard Saucer of Loneliness, a science-fiction radio play by Theodore Sturgeon, wherein a small flying saucer buzzes a lonely woman to deliver its message-in-a-bottle. “There is in certain living souls a quality of loneliness unspeakable, so great it must be shared as company is shared by lesser beings. Such a loneliness is mine. So, know by this, that in immensity, there is one lonelier than you.”BE BRAVE, TRUST YOURSELF: If they knock you down, you get up. If they knock you down again, get up. No matter how many times they knock you down, get up again. (p. 108) Don’t listen to doubt. It leads no place but to pain and negativity. Instead, have a tenderness and determination toward your art, a sense of humor and a deep patience that you are doing the right thing. (p. 109)Even when no one can quite understand what you are talking about, trust the energy behind your art. In life we have to be crazy, we have to lose control, step out of our ordinary way of seeing, and learn that the world is not the way we think it is. (p. 128)Give yourself tremendous space to wander in, to be utterly lost with no name, and then come back and speak. (p. 130)CONNECTING WITH YOUR ART: We have trouble connecting with our own confident creative voice that is inside all of us, and even when we do connect and create well, we don’t claim it. There seems to be a gap between the greatness we are capable of and the way we see ourselves and, therefore, see our work. (p. 154)It is not as important for the world to claim our work as it is to claim it for ourselves. That will make us content. We are good, and when our work is good, it is good. We should acknowledge it and stand behind it. (p. 156) All artists, at some level, want to be known. That’s why they create. In knowing who you are and creating from it, you will help the world by giving it understanding. (pgs. 145–146)YOU WILL SUCCEED IF YOU ARE FEARLESS OF FAILURE. (p. 67)

My little saying is 'faith, not fear'. Whatsoever your faith may be or how it manifests itself, I find faith in one's self is a good place to start. If you find that difficult, have faith that the universe is unfolding as it should. If you've ever taken a risk, or mysteriously landed on your feet, you will know what I mean. If you've never taken a risk.... try it.