Let the day lead you like a deer through the forest

I have spoken and written a great deal about all the moments I’ve experienced when I’ve taken my first steps to make a dream real and then – voila – my dream shows up and lets me know I am on the right path.  These visitations come in all kinds of strange places, are always unexpected, and when they occur mark the moment my dream and I begin a beautiful, exhilarating, sometimes maddening interplay to make the dream real.  I’ve never tried to knit with another person – as in two of us knitting the same thing together – but I imagine it would be similar.  It wouldn’t necessarily come naturally, and sometimes we might both want to call it quits, but in those instances when we got into a perfect symbiotic flow, magic happens.

I learned the value of embracing this particular dance – between my self and my dream – early on in my creative career, and I’ve shared this message time and time again.  I always word it the same way, where I explain that making a dream real is all about managing the balance between creating what I envision and following leads, opportunities and detours that I could have never imagined or expected.  No matter what my dream or project, they have always ended up being equally influenced by both sides of this coin.  If I had to guess which side usually “won out” – my ideas or the unexpected twists – the twists would win hands down.

I was thinking this recently – about how easily that trust comes to me when I am creating and when I am traveling.  In both of those pursuits, my attachments to specific outcomes are few and I am able to handle setbacks, rejections and surprises with a certain level of calm.  It is only in my day-to-day life when these frustrations tend to throw me off kilter.  One day in particular comes to mind as I ponder this, a day many years ago when I was re-arranging rooms in my apartment in order to create a new studio space.  As I was moving a mirror, it got knocked over and shattered into a million pieces.  My reaction?  Barely a shrug as I stared at all the glittering shards of glass around me.  That same day I got a bagel sandwich to go, brought it home, and upon discovering it wasn’t what I ordered, I freaked out.  Yelling!  And cursing!  And bemoaning my horrible life!

So when I say the day-to-day is sometimes a greater challenge than the riskier, more complex journeys, I’m talking about that bagel sandwich.  I’m talking about the mundane.

I’ve followed this train of thought to one simple conclusion:  It is time to bring this dance into all areas of my life, to wake up each day ready for the same kind of collaboration that I’m prepared for with each new journey, creative or otherwise.  I’ve learned how to let my creative work lead me, and I have a great deal of experience letting different countries, cities, planes and trains lead me.  Now I need to learn how to loosen the reins on my daily life – to take whatever to do lists I make for things like laundry, work and dinner and allow more space in between the bullet points.  To let some air in through the cracks, and let that breeze take me where it will.  Those unexpected twists and turns that I love so much in my artwork and travels are also available to me on my way to the post office, at the breakfast table with my husband and beyond the end of this very essay.

Today, I will let the day lead me.

*****

christine’s inspiring 2 hour workshop Today: Begin starts this afternoon.  where could this adventure lead You?  there is still time to join in.