Prepare
to Leap
“Dare to
declare who you are. It is not far from the shores of silence to the
boundaries of speech. The path is not long, but the way is deep. You
must not only walk there, you must be prepared to leap.”
Hildegard
of Bingen
Next weekend, I will be
involved in my first studio gallery show. I have shown my art now
four different times and each time feels as though it's the first. I
consider myself to be a novice, even though I've been quilting for
forty-five years, and came from a long line of quilters—mother,
great-aunts, grannies, and great-grannies. Maybe I'm obsessive about
finding meaning in things, but I believe this is a way of “declaring
myself.” I've been an artist all my life, because art is not
something I do, it is an expression of my deepest core. I'm not
special. All artists are that way—they make art because they have
to, because they have an internal drive to create. Sometimes, it's
exhausting. Any artist will tell you that the drive is at times so
strong and demanding that it interrupts sleep and pushes the brain
into constant recitation of images. Getting the image out onto
canvas, or into fabric, or whatever the medium, is just one step in
an ongoing process that consumes the artist every waking hour. It is
both a joy, and a frustration.
We declare ourselves in
many ways—or not. Sometimes it takes a lifetime to realize who we
are and have the courage to declare it. I met a man last weekend at
Awakening Soul, who finally came out as gay in his sixties, after
having married a woman when he was young, raised a family, become a
minister, and then a bishop of the church. I suspect that story is
not terribly uncommon; nevertheless, it must have taken great courage
for him to take the step of declaring himself knowing what the losses would be. Knowing who you are and never declaring yourself is akin to
carrying an unborn baby in your body all your life. If your soul-work
never sees the light of day because you are too timid to give it
birth, it never becomes a gift to the world, which is its purpose.
Don't be afraid—it's
never too late to become who you are as long as your are drawing
breath. I encourage you to take the leap. Let's do this!
In the Spirit,
Jane
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