Artempowerment: Courage

“Courage is fear that has said its prayers and decided to go forward anyway.” – Joyce Meyer

I have always been the kid who stood at the edge of a cool summer’s pool, or river bend, long after everyone else was in. I was girding up my courage to take the leap, and then, no slow dipping for me. I would leap in and enjoy the swim. I have been like that in my life too. I have had many reasons and seasons of all kinds of fears – some of them way too real and some of them of my own making. But, here I am. I made it by the skin of my teeth, but here I am.

Personal growth demands that we take risks. Many small risks lead to eventual big breakthroughs, I have found. As well, once you take some risks, it becomes apparent that risk-factors are mostly of the mind and all it takes is mind over matter and you can begin to have adventures in successes and failures without the mind exaggerating things. Of course, this doe not mean go out and do dangerous things. It is way too easy to stay in our comfort zones, but, again, we will not grow as much. Just, when you feel a block, sometimes, it is way worth it to go out on a limb and give yourself the joy of succeeding at small risk-adventures.

There is a type of thrill that comes from taking small risks, to pushing past illogical fears. Martha Grimes, a fictitious detective writer, wrote, “We don’t know who we are until we see what we can do.” Especially now, when we have been years spent in fear of even going out, life can get stale. I have found I have lost a great deal of joy and sense of fulfillment. I have a sense that time, in a way, has simply drug on by without note. For me, I need some type of adventure, some way of marking time. When I could not risk the big things, I took risks with my art work. I had many fails, but, man, I had some successes. Now that things are opening up, so am I. I am going on the Lapidary Field Trips again. I am going to the rook shop and slabbing and grinding and polishing the many rocks I have gathered over the yars. I love taking a big ugly rock to the slab machine and cutting off a slice to see what is inside. Then I grind and then I polish. My rocks are not that precious but, sometimes, I fear starting to cut into a beauty to find more beauty and make more beauty out of that. What a sense of satisfaction with life when I get a dab as perfectly as I can. I have begun to take courses I wire-wrapping a skilo I thought I could not do because of my numb fingers... but, oh, I got some beauties made. My lie is, again filling up with some tiny adventures that I will myself to take.