Thursday 7 February 2013

MUDDY WATERS

Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone. ~ Alan Wilson Watts

These words smacked me upside the head today, in a way generally reserved for Bob Dylan, Bible and Oswald Chambers. Like a lot of God words, I love this quote and it more than a little bugs me. For me, it sits in direct opposition to some other God-smacking words I have been working on:
Do one thing every day that scares you. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt.
Words are what's scaring me lately, and they are my feet in the water – in equal measure a controlled act of will and a stirring up of whatever is loose and grey. I have a really hard time leaving them alone, once they start walking around in my gut.
I’ve been very, very brave with my words lately – braver than I have ever been. I’ve been taking risks and doing what scares me, and I’ve been finding myself with my hand on my stomach a lot, muttering to myself, What was I thinking??  This risk-taking do what scares you stuff is counter-intuitive, and really not for the faint of heart. It’s how people fall off of cliffs, or get ulcers, and it's how people get really honest about what's inside them.
You have to somehow find a way to hold onto vision, without attaching to outcome. But even in the vision, you can’t be afraid to lose clarity. Occasionally, muddy waters part when you step into them.
Sometimes a pillar of dusty air is best cleared by just following it.

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