Brave Again
September 20, 2011
I purchased this painting a few years ago ~ a mixed media creation on canvas by the uber-talented Anne Carmack. Even though I have not – miraculously – moved since the day I brought it home, it feels like something that has followed me. Anytime I look at it or pick it up, I think of it as a companion of sorts ~ something that has been content to sit quietly and be comfortable wherever I end up putting it.
I had a monumentally bad afternoon with the Tilda Bear last week, and in the midst of it, as I walked by this painting ~ which was sitting on the floor with a few other paintings just outside my studio ~ I instinctually grabbed it and set it atop my studio work table. I needed to hold it, to have it up higher ~ somewhere that its message was more readily and consistently available. Because training and working with Tilda has been about that word ~ again. It has been about disciplining her again. Taking her for a walk again. Picking up her poo and pulling a half-eaten sock out of her mouth again.
That is why this piece has been such a guidepost for me ~ it is a reminder that anything worthwhile and meaningful is all about the agains. I send out a story, it is rejected, so I revise it again and send it out again. I sit still again. I pull my awareness into the present again. I do laundry and dishes and balance our checkbook again and again and again. Life is an ongoing series of agains ~ of giving something a go, creating something, or putting an idea into action, and then having to tweak and adjust and correct and clean up and give in and stand up and sit down and take a risk…again.
I treasure those moments of completion and accomplishment, but they only exist because of the agains. They rest on a foundation of all the moments when I am willing to say, “It’s time to Be Brave Again.”
so true and well put. you’ve inspired me to move on to the next again in some areas.
have a great week,
Cassie
I will keep this phrase close to me today and carry it with me as I continue to get used to my new and challenging job. “It’s time to be brave again” is going to be on repeat this evening. Your own bravery and kindness is felt by me. Thank you.
“Life is an ongoing series of agains” – I love this, Christine, and the lesson you provide here is huge. To keep at it, stay focused, flexible, and courageous. I’m going to drink this dose of wisdom in like the tall glass of refreshment it is.
It’s the ‘again’ that makes all the difference in my life, again and again. xx
It really is about doing it again and again and again. Thank you for this.
what a great way to look at life as a series of agains!! when you think of it in that way it sorta makes certain things more easy to digest…like i have to clean the house again!
and to remind you (again) that you are still endlessly wonderful
Love this. Love you. Love AGAIN.
xo
Hmmmmm… Mufasa had a massive seizure Saturday night. He’s a big dog, bigger than Tilda, and a cancer survivor, so at 11 he’s on borrowed time. I know how it is to do those things over and over and over and over… and then go for a walk in the rain, dammit… and then do it all over again even after she destroys something.
The amazing thing from where I sit is: you’ll keep right on doing it all, Universe willing, for over a decade, and Tilda will grow up and out of a lot of the wildness. She’ll grow slower and calmer, heavier. Then one day you’ll look back at how much of your LIFE she’s been a part of… and the over and over and over will just sort-of fade away.
ENJOY it, if you can.
Much love from Switzerland… to you AND Tilda.
B