"Maybe you have a dream or a desire to move into the
world, something you're always talking yourself out of...."
- Emily Freeman, A
Million Little Ways, Uncovering the Art You Were Made to Live, p. 16
Wow. I think about the barriers that keep me from reaching out and putting myself out there. I don't think about myself as having something original to offer. And yet, because I am an original, and God is within me, mixed with the uniqueness of me, what comes out is distinctively original. How do I miss this? I mean, sure, you can argue that there are no truly original “stories” anymore. There’s a villain, a hero, a conflict, usually revolving around the same themes that have existed since the first writings recorded. And yet, each writer infuses his own spark of innovation, making the tale, once again, unique. Our own life experiences, imagination, and personality take hold of a theme and it becomes its own new living work.
Emily Freeman's encouraging works ring in my ears,
"You were born to make art."
"You were born to live art."
"It's time to live as though we believe we have something to offer."
The ideas in you are an inexhaustible fountain . . . . No human being, as long as he is living, can be exhausted of his ever-changing, ever-moving river of ideas. We are so apt to think of ourselves as a stomach with arms and legs and a skein of nerves in the skull, which sometimes, when we have plenty of sleep and some hot coffee, seems to give off a few ideas. But to write happily and with self-trust you must discover what there is in you, this bottomless fountain of imagination and knowledge.
Wow. I think about the barriers that keep me from reaching out and putting myself out there. I don't think about myself as having something original to offer. And yet, because I am an original, and God is within me, mixed with the uniqueness of me, what comes out is distinctively original. How do I miss this? I mean, sure, you can argue that there are no truly original “stories” anymore. There’s a villain, a hero, a conflict, usually revolving around the same themes that have existed since the first writings recorded. And yet, each writer infuses his own spark of innovation, making the tale, once again, unique. Our own life experiences, imagination, and personality take hold of a theme and it becomes its own new living work.
Emily Freeman's encouraging works ring in my ears,
"You were born to make art."
"You were born to live art."
"It's time to live as though we believe we have something to offer."
The ideas in you are an inexhaustible fountain . . . . No human being, as long as he is living, can be exhausted of his ever-changing, ever-moving river of ideas. We are so apt to think of ourselves as a stomach with arms and legs and a skein of nerves in the skull, which sometimes, when we have plenty of sleep and some hot coffee, seems to give off a few ideas. But to write happily and with self-trust you must discover what there is in you, this bottomless fountain of imagination and knowledge.
—Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write, p. 146
So here I am, talking
myself into a dream. Taking
risks, trusting that the adventure will be worth the jump. Releasing myself to be authentic and
open- and seeing where it leads.
Will it be good?
Who knows? But I refuse to
ask myself permission to write based on the promise that it will. So, “Penscripting,” here’s to the
beginning of our relationship!
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