So how’m I doing in my quest to re-invent my life, follow my evolving Blisses and create the life I really, really want?
Scene: A dark restaurant. New Orleans. Heart of the French Quarter.
The food was outstanding (accompanied by the lazy ritual of watching filtered water drip through a sugar cube to opalesce a glass of absinthe). The ambiance romantic (we sat side by side and gazed down the bar from inside the three walls of a private booth). The waiter was the right blend of friendly and discreet (and even sported a classic New Orleans accent).
The Bombay Club was a find, but the real reason we ended up there was because in my sweetie’s cursory search on his iPhone for a good dinner spot, it was the first to advertise live jazz.
Last Tuesday night this turned out to be the stylings of vocalist/pianist Amanda Walker, the jewel in the Bombay Club’s ambiance crown.
We tipped her on the way out, but as the door closed behind me I paused.
Creative abundance requires courage
If I didn’t want to live with regret, it was time to screw my courage to the sticking point.
“Just a minute,” I said to my sweetie, and went back inside, heart pounding.
“I’m a singer too,” I told Amanda, who had just finished a song. “We’re visiting from California, and I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your music.”
Thus began a little friendly conversation. A simple thing, but a challenge for this still-sometimes-shy native-introvert.
Creative abundance requires courage.
CDs were exchanged (jazz singers, I’ve found, tend to be a friendly and generous tribe). “Too bad you didn’t tell me earlier,” Amanda said, “I’d have let you sit in.”
Then: “Actually, you can sit in right now if you want.”
90 seconds later I made my New Orleans debut.
To an audience of about six people – plus waitstaff and my sweetie – but hell, I still played New Orleans. And those few minutes are one of my best memories of my first visit there.
All because I took a risk.
Creative abundance requires courage
Every time I post a blog I run the risk of people not liking it, unsubscribing, or worst of all, deciding I’m boring.
Every time I put a piece up for sale or show, or send out my not-quite daily ArtFix newsletter, I run the risk of a negative response, or worse, no response at all.
Every time I get up in front of an audience to sing and make them laugh, I wonder if all the other times were flukes, and this time I’ll fall on my face. Or hear the sound of crickets.
It’s scary shit, this putting-yourself-out-there thing.
But consider the alternative. Do I really want a small life, keeping my gifts entirely to myself? Do you?
The only way to grow, to vibrate at the creative abundance I desire, is to take the risk.
Jump.
When I look back on my life so far, I have no regrets about the times I jumped; only about the times I didn’t.
Creative abundance requires courage
So tell me, what step are you taking today to live your own creative abundance?
Love this post! It does take courage and you’ve inspired me to make the jump x
Hooray hooray! So glad I inspired you to make the jump, Rachel! I’d love to hear what it leads to. 🙂
OMG so exciting! I’m so proud of you!
Hehe! Thanks Fawn! 🙂
You are such an inspiration! What a great story and it will help me the next time I feel like holding back just a little.
Today I said “no” to something, which is also part of what I need to do to live my creative abundance.
Thank you!
Oh thanks Dianne! I’m so glad my story inspired you! Yay!
I also have to applaud you for saying no! Learning to say no is just as important as learning to say yes, when it comes to creative abundance. 🙂
Now, see, I am proud of you!! It takes guts to do that – sung a few times in public myself… and yes, you never know who’s gonna love/hate you!!
It never occurred to me that you feel that way about writing blogposts… I very much enjoy my (not quite) daily artfixes. I adore their simplicity, their beauty and their subtle inspiration. Go you!! =)
Hehe! Thanks Rosie! It’s funny – getting up and singing in public is not in itself scary to me, it was approaching the other singer that made me have to screw up my courage! Weird, maybe, but that’s me. :}
Blog posts are in one way less scary, because I’m sending them out “into the void,” as it were, and don’t have to worry about seeing an immediate reaction. But on the other hand, because there isn’t necessarily any reaction it’s easy to assume that nobody cares, which is its own brand of scary.
Anyway, I’m so glad you’re enjoying your artfixes! Hooray! Thanks for turning other people on to my work!
xoxo
Melissa