Happy January!  Or should I say February?  It’s hard to believe this month is already coming to a close and the New Year is well underway.  Although the 3 degree temperatures and foot of snow makes it hard to forget we are deep in winter.  Ah well.  So it goes. Hopefully this will bring in some color to your day 🙂  Today I bring you from the easel, finally completed  The Leap  (48in x 30in).

So you might want to know what this one is about.  If you’ve been following me, you may recall that this piece began mid last year and I’ve been waiting for how it is to complete.  Waiting sometimes gets a bad rap in our culture. And sometimes its deserved- particularly when its procrastination pretends to be ‘right timing’.  In the case of my artwork, it’s more like intensive listening. On the outside it looks like waiting. On the inside, it certainly feels like a lot of waiting. (Especially when it’s silence I hear) And yet the whole time I’m knocking for what is next.  Eventually, however long or short while later, the missing piece appears.  It’s a constant test of trust, faith and detachment. It’s so much easier to live like that in creating art than with living life though. At least in my experience.

Everyone gets to a point when their trust and faith is tested.  It happens every day in my life, really.  Outside of what I happen to be painting that day. (And if you are like me, fail at it more times than you’d like to admit) Sometimes though there are these periods in which are particularly hard.  Pressure Cookers as I call them. Not knowing what to do, what the right decision is to make- being paralyzed and overwhelmed at the same time, boxed into a corner. All the while knowing that if something doesn’t change its a doomsday all around. That the floor beneath your feet will fall.  The disappointment people will have in you. The disappointment you will have in yourself.  The harm you may cause – if you do, if you don’t.  The people you may lose.  The overwhelming sense of not knowing what’s to come. And not all that sure what way it will turn out.

Joseph Campbell has said
We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

And I say – We have to be willing to let go of what we think the Truth is in order to actually live into and discover it. 

We have to be willing to let go of what we think the Truth is in order to actually live into and discover it

Regardless of what super smart person or guru tells you.

Experience in this will always be your greatest teacher.

The question comes in, can you really trust how you are being led?

It’s scary. You can come up with a million scenarios of how it unfolds. Maybe most of them don’t look all that safe. No guarantees on the outcome.  Do you take the leap off the ledge or do you not?  And more importantly (as the final parts of this piece was revealed), once you’ve leapt, will you actually let go of what you think you know, stop flailing, and believe in the way you are being led?  Will you keep trusting even though it may not be turning out the way you thought it would or what you had hoped for? Or is different than what others say?  Will you stop worrying about the fall and trying to control the landing?  Doing so is another version of not taking the leap at all.  It gets in the way.

You must let go of it all. Come as a child, with fresh eyes and allow yourself to live in the leap.   Let it mold you, teach you.   Let your leap (and your free fall) reveal to you what is actually true.  Leave the ledge of worrying and flailing behind. And find out truly how truly supported you really are in becoming who you are meant to become. Bottom line. You really, really, really, really, REALLY do not need to worry.  About anything.  At all.  Despite all the craziness and fear that’s kicked up 24/7.  Breathe it in. Imagine living it.  Really, Do it now.   Imagine it’s all OK. It really is all OK.  Breathe it out.  Really, breathe it all out.  Again.  Let yourself be with that truth.  Knowing that, what do you want to do?