REVERB10: Hallelujah for Wisdom of 2010

In 2010, I began WISELY living IN my LIFE! To be IN my LIFE, I first had to acknowledge the simultaneous existence of both my DESIREs to DO and all the FEARs about why I shouldn’t ACT on these DESIREs! Then I grabbed the FEARs with both hands and jumped into the abyss of the GREAT UNKNOWN to SEE what I might DO anyway! My FEARS were welcomed GUESTs on my PILGRIMAGE.

One of my loudest and noisiest FEARs is IMPERFECTION. Mr. IMPERFECT used to stop me cold in my ambitions by saying, “If you can’t do a job well, don’t do it at all!” Welcome 2010 and WISDOM of the 5 DECADES—acceptance of the MESSINESS of DOING!

Here’s a list of some of MESSY projects I have taken on this year:

• Committing to doing art workshops with senior refugees at the Clarkston Community Center in Clarkston, Georgia, without volunteers, supplies, and a background in teaching art
• Designing a logo for a friend’s business called “Curious Cup” without previous experience
• Being a group leader for the Atlanta Artist Conference Network
• Getting a studio space at Sycamore Place Gallery to do collaborative work with my Chiboogamoo
• Agreeing to organize an art project to raise money to support small business endeavors for refugee women
• Dedicating myself to develop cool, powerful, and diverse women for beer labels for the Beer Brew Girls
• Striving to write one blog entry a week for COFFEE WITH HALLELUJAH
• Seeing LIFE through the eyes of HALLELUJAH wherever I go!

The outcome of “feeling the fear and doing it anyway” is that I am FULLY living MY LIFE! I smile at the CHAOS created by the imperfection. Sometimes, when EVERYTHING is seeming SO messy, I ask myself if I want to BE here DOING what I AM DOING—and the answer is a resounding, “YES.”

In my art group, Artist Conference Network, we routinely read inspirational quotes about creativity. I will leave you today with one by Martha Graham:

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one you in all time, this expression unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is; nor how valuable it is; nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself, or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate YOU. Keep the channel open…No artist is pleased…There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction; a blessed unrest that keeps us marching.

Hallelujah for the Wisdom of 2010! No artist may ever be satisfied, but certainly there is GREAT satisfaction in being ALIVE and DOING!