Stay Steady.

“Most people don’t run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second. Give your dreams all you’ve got and you’ll be amazed at the amount of energy that comes out of you.”

-William James

Writing has been a form of escape since I began reading story books. I always thought of the narrator as a wizard. Someone who casts spells as they tell a story of love, passion, crime, and heartache. I would dive nose deep into a sea of tales while the surrounding chaos was left at shore. I was inspired by the colorful narratives these story tellers would bring to life and so I decided to paint mine.

At first, they were nothing but silly little stories. The kind you’d find in the children’s section, like the The Grimm Sisters but without the monsters. Eventually, I saw my ordinary world began to crumble like every other empire. I was pushed out of my comfort zone and into a new stage of life. As every hero does on its journey, I refused the call. Acting out of spite, I stumbled and fell one too many times, per my own demise, of course. However, as the story goes, the hero meets it’s mentor. I became aware of certain patterns linked to experiences that had pieces of me, experiences that shaped my mentality, and ultimately, my reality.

I learned the hard way that staying stagnant was only going to lead to more death. Yes, death. Nobody really thinks about death until you’re placed right in front of it. Until the barrel is pointing right at you, until the smell of decay hits your nose, until you see your loved one in a box. Unfortunately, that was the moment I crossed the threshold. In a way, I was forced out of my ordinary world. Life threw me a curveball and I didn’t have a second to think, only react, and I’ve had more than plenty of strikeouts. I’ve lost one too many races, I’ve been flagged too many times I’ve had to sit out for a season. Sports taught me a thing or two about losing, but it also taught me how to work well with others, even when they weren’t my teammates. So in this hero’s journey, they say we’re “faced with challenges and must decide who to trust”. To that I say that our words are powerful spells that we cast on ourselves and onto others. What kind of tone our we using to narrate our story? These trials and ultimate life decisions, our deepest fears and our biggest challenges- they don’t shape who we are. We are not our biggest fears. We are warriors capable of facing these challenges, we are spiritual beings connected to a Higher Power capable of trusting our own instincts. That’s the story we can tell ourselves. Give it a tone that rings deep in your blood stream, vibrating every cell of your body, energizing your soul and feeling the warmth of your glowing light pouring out into the collective consciousness, contributing to the world as One.