COURAGE MONTH: DAY 3: “Art is a personal act of courage, something one human does that creates change in another.” ― Seth Godin
Those who create something new, no matter what that something may be, have to jump off the known world as if off the cliff where standing makes sense.
When we do this, we are continuously on the verge of flight. Those who cling to the known world are stuck in a cycle of known events, over and over again…like “Groundhog Day.” We cannot create something new from what is known. It must come from a new energy.
We must have the courage to have the vision and create what we see. If we are afraid and keeping our eyes screwed shut through that fear, we will never create a work of art.
Many people who are gifted artists are re-creating other pieces of art. They are copy-artists. They do not create anything new but keep re-creating the same thing that someone else has already created. This is not art, it is duplication.
It is that willingness to jump off the cliff of what is known that allows me to fly. And, I can honestly say, I have not only flown, but soared in this life. Not always because of courage I may have had, but usually out of necessity. I have my critics, to be sure. Some of what they say is probably true; most certainly for them. But I have soared, because I have dared to be who I am. It isn’t the most popular thing, that is for sure also. But it is absolutely necessary, for me.
I don’t know about creating change in another. I only know I can create nothing except original art in my life. I don’t want to copy anyone or anything else. I have my heroes and the role models who inspire me, but I don’t want to create their art. I want to create what lives in me.
This goes beyond art, to the life I live. My life is a giant canvas for my painting, a giant screen for my movie. I love these analogies. And I want to fearlessly create this life as freely as possible. It is important and wonderful to be that.
Step 8 is about looking at who and what I have done that was inauthentic to this life of freedom I value so deeply. I have to move past this error and into the authentic living of MY life. I can only do that when I walk away from the shit I create around old stories and old ideas. If I am to create this art called life, I want to be rid of the baggage that takes me away from the authentic creation I know I am capable of. I can do this with that end in mind.
I am not those errors. I am not those mistaken beliefs that drove me to this place of redemption. I can move into and through all this with the gates of freedom looming ahead of me. THAT is what I want to create. The world where I don’t carry this with me one moment longer.
And I have that. An amazing life, free of this crap and the thinking that brought it into being. I love this stuff, every day, all the time. This is the purpose for all of it…a work of art!
Dolphin Hug 