At Costco I flipped through The Daring Book for Girls parked right there beside The Dangerous Book for Boys. These books are all about knowing how to do stuff - using a compass, sewing on buttons - things like that. They invite kids to an acoustic life. Hands on. And they must have got me thinking.I made the SoulCollage card (pictured left) just before the Winter Solstice. It’s entitled The Call. "Called to what?" I’ve wondered. This morning I woke with the sense that I was called to a year of living dangerously*, but I doubt I’ll be heading off to Indonesia. I think my dangerous life includes a component described in the books above, a willingness to engage with life, not as a consumer, but as a learner, with all the floundering and failure learning implies.
Failure makes me very nervous. I was never angrier with my sister, Barrie, than when she entered a swim meet at The Club and came in dead last. Buying a book and reading it is safe. Working on a project that matters could be a real mess. A friend once hurt my feelings. I told him I was scared to write, and he said, “You are afraid to find out you aren’t as good as you think you are.” Blunt, maybe, but accurate.
So I’m ready to live dangerously. Just being myself (in whatever floundering way that can happen). Risking that I will be accepted and loved anyway. Risking that wobbling and a few falls are worth it to learn to write a story or bake bread or whatever else Life calls me to. The Velveteen Rabbit had it right, being Real is not for sissies.
Blessings, Dear Reader, for a creative, perhaps daring, 2008.
* Homage to that great Peter Weir movie of the same name. Remember? Sigourney Weaver, Mel Gibson, Linda Hunt.
Intrigued by SoulCollage? See more at SoulCollage talkabout.
8 comments:
Go for it. Live dangerously. There's enough wisdom by now to know what can be risked and what is stupid.
P.S. I had trouble commenting on your earlier post on the person's (rude) remark about the value of blogging. I completed a study of blogging, focusing on female blogging, for a media studies grad class. I publshed the results in segments.
It starts here.
The reasons for blogging are as many as there are bloggers. Many might say it is the salvation of democracy. In the old phampleteer mode - self publishing as Ben Franklin did under pseudonyms.
I like to think that in blogging there is no risk of failure because there are no specific goals. I know well how fear of failure can inhibit my thinking with background noise about progress and success. When blogging, it's good to shove those concerns aside. So carry on, brave one.
P.S. Thanks for visiting me. I enjoyed your visit and want to wish you all the best in blogging for the New Year.
In my world map, there's no such thing as failure, only feedback. If we don't "fail", we don't grow. Trying and learning from the experience is the story of my life and I couldn't be happier. I used to think perfect was the way. Well, it was the way of misery and suffering because nothing is ever the perfect we conjure up in our heads. What if perfect were what "is", what if perfect was exactly how we are as we learn and grow. Sharry, you go girl and live dangerously on the edge - say your truth and get out there. You have a lot to share!
Very intriguing post and I like your SC card very much. I made one myself right after Christmas and hadn't done one in more than a month. Happy new year living dangerously and your definition of what means for you. My post today is called Year of Possibility which I'm still exploring. Maybe it's time to make another card.
When I used to run, having a friend drive by and wave always gave me an added burst of energy. That's how I feel reading your comments fellow bloggers. Many thanks.
Sharry
Best wishes for your Year of Living Dangerously - loved the movie - and am so glad to discover your blog. I think we share the great G.K. Chesterton motto: "If a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing badly." You remind me that one of my goals for 2008 is to take creative chances whenever I can... thank you.
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