This Is Not A Detour

This is a green light. This is no excuse to stop working and creating. In fact, it's the opposite. It's a big, flashing GO sign. My body says create. My body says keep going, keep writing. Let your writing reach out now. No more artistic masturbation. Reach out and jerk off the world!

Or something like that.

I think in the past, a health thing like this would have been an excuse to stop creating. It would be another convenient reason to put the work aside and focus on getting healthy. Or whatever the excuse du jour is. Anything other than making art.

Pardon my French, but fuck that. Creativity is healthy. It is the healthiest thing in the world. Life is creation. Vibrant, glorious, energetic creation.

So, along with things like affirmations, organic blah-blah and seeing Dr. Best In The City on Monday...I will keep writing.

This morning, I went back to basics. Morning Pages. Well, first I listed off everything that I'm grateful for in my life. What a list! One thing on my list was this stunning, heart-filling moment of sunrise sunshine I experienced this morning. I caught the sun just when it was bursting with warm, crazy orange through the blinds. It was the colour of heaven. Early mornings are the best for colour, incidentally. If you need some colour therapy, don't sleep in.

So, Morning Pages. I went to the page. I asked for David to come clear to me. He is the only thing holding me back from completing Draft Three. And I wrote and wrote and then I realized, he's already clear. He came clear a little while ago (in my Morning Pages) and I just haven't written his new scenes. Yesssssssss.

I think life is one big, fat, juicy metaphor. Whereas Charlie the Suicidal Princess of the Night was most like me, David the Warrior of Dreams has become most like me. He (me) is holding me back from finishing. And he (me) is already clear.

In this screenplay, he is my voice. He is the 'grab life by the balls NOW, today not tomorrow, live your freaking dreams message. He is also accident prone and has trouble getting his shit together. But what's next for him (me) is very exciting. He is about to take a big risk in the name of creativity.

I've begun to think about Creativity as synonymous with Life and Love.

The other day, Dr. Point Blank had a message for me (other than the write and travel message). She mentioned a book called The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die. And I thought she was talking about that Mitch Albom book. Me and Mitch...not so much.

But no, different book. Fabulous secrets. Here they are:

1. Be true to yourself
2. Take more risks (leave no regrets)
3. Become love
4. Live the moment
5. Give more than you take

How beautiful is that? Granted, Publishers Weekly thought the book was tripe. But who cares about those crusty old cynics anyway. (I'm sure if I ever have the honour of being reviewed by PW, I will eat these words.)

My current fave is Take More Risks. Take risks in the name of your passions, dreams and creativity and you can't go wrong. I think we all need to hear that again and again and again. I love this! It's not "Be Safer" or "Contribute to your RRSP" or "Use Colour-Safe Bleach." It's TAKE MORE RISKS. Whooo!

I have a couple of deadlines tomorrow. And then...nothing. A big, wide-open expanse of possibility. I know all I need to do is make two phone calls and I'd have copywriting work galore. But I'm not doing that. I'm stepping into uncertainty. Into pure possibility and potential.

I am taking the risk that when I step out, my creative work will support me. This is a big risk. Not like a 'Let's see if flossing this rabid dog's teeth is a good idea' risk. Not a stupid risk. A wondrous risk. One that asks me to evolve. To rise to my own potential. To evolve and adapt. To heal and grow and move forward into love, into life.