Take a Leap

The Fire Inside: A Companion for the Creative Life

Chapter Twelve: Just Do It

Take a Leap

Pursue what catches your heart, not what catches your eyes.–Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

I remember…
The first time I took a leap I was young, about the same age as my fifth-grade granddaughter. So many years ago and I can still remember it, changes churning inside me, subtle, but tangible. It was as if unknown forces had taken camp inside my stomach—driving impulses, fiery urges that kept pushing up like hunger at the end of a long day. What was I longing for?

My school was hosting an art show and I did—no, I didn’t—want to participate. I was worried. Was I good enough? How could I compare to Robert, who could draw a real horse? Or the third grader who did pretty cross-stitch and embroidered a four-colored rainbow? But in art class, we’d been introduced to colored pencils, clay and paint, and a beautiful yearning took hold in me. I loved it, all of it, and decided to take the plunge. From that day forward, I formed a new identity, perceiving myself as someone more than the freckle-faced girl who rode a pony and collected rocks. And seeing my lopsided pinch pot in the art show, I felt a warm buzz course from my toes to my head.

Crafting Our Lives
Mary Catherine Bateson, author of Composing a Life, describes how we as individuals craft our lives from what we are given. She reminds us that, at any age, we can build our lives anew by applying the raw material we already possess, and decide, at last, to use. But we must be willing to take a leap of faith. What does it mean to take a leap of faith? It involves risk-taking, seeing something beautiful on the far side of a chasm and deciding to go for it. Weighing the choice of inaction against the prospect of something dazzling, something, truly worthwhile waiting for you. It involves courage, putting yourself out there even if you are afraid of rejection, of failing to meet your own standards, of quitting too early. And it means trusting your gut, knowing that the leap will be worth it, whether or not you entirely succeed.

Trust
What makes you pursue a leap of faith? It comes about when you feel a longing, an unanswered call rising inside; and it comes about when a new reality or different art form dangles enticingly in front of you. Then you allow the wonder of your creative instinct to lead you, trust, and leap, the process of transformation unfolding like a popup book, so that you see your words, the paint you work with, the clay, take new form, re-arranging themselves into a short story, a self-portrait, or clay vase. An immense feeling of gratification sweeps over you, and you become aware that you, too, are wonderfully renewed from the inside out.

Reflecting on my personal creative journey, I realize the times I’ve ventured out past the breakers have brought me the greatest satisfaction. I’ve re-crafted my life when I shared a poem with a friend, sent off a manuscript, and, yes, when I entered my pinch pot in the art show.

But first I had take a leap. –Becky Breed

Creative/Writing Exercise:

1. Taking a leap requires courage, commitment and trust, often lots of it. A belief in one’s self and desire to delve deeply. As we evolve as artists and writers, we learn to welcome new challenges, holding close the flowering possibilities within us. We continue to discover different growth areas in ourselves—the quickening of thought and experience, the freshness of wonder—and we are bright with the self-recognition of possibility.

2. Today’s exercise is to memorialize those leaps of faith. Whether it’s been a month or a decade or more since they occurred, spend some time identifying those faithful leaps. You may want to give yourself twenty-four hours to bring to the surface those experiences that pulsate. Consider three. Tap into childhood, adolescence, every stage of your life. List the experiences.

3. Now looking at them, ask yourself the following questions: a.) When I made that decision, what changed in my life? b.) Did the choice reflect back to me a more satisfied self, a bigger self, one where I was more alive, fulfilled? c.) Did my life as an artist, as a human being, expand?

4. Select an experience and write. You might want to begin with: When I was________

For more inspiration, check out our website www.thewritingandcreativelife.com.

Or follow this link to purchase our latest book, The Fire Inside.

­­­