Courage / Inspiration

The other day I came across a post somewhere that stated simply: Creativity Takes Courage.

I've had some time to think about this and what those three words have meant in my world. They bring to mind, in fact, exactly how I felt the day before I left for my first photography workshop a few years ago. How I had worried to a friend that I shouldn't be doing this. Even though I had signed up, made air, rental car and hotel reservations, I seriously considered calling it off.

I would be traveling by myself to a small town I'd never been to before, meeting up with people I didn't know and was unfamiliar with the terrain I'd be navigating in my rental. I recognized that I wanted to learn, but was fairly intimidated by the fact that the extent of my photographic skills at the time were that I could find a scene through the viewfinder and push the shutter......but little else. There were buttons and wheels and menus on my camera and I didn't know what many of them were used for. What I knew about my computer, photo editing programs, light and composition was just as sparse. Marc nearly had to push me out the door on the morning I left...... and did some talking, if I remember correctly, to encourage me to get me on that plane. (On the plus side I had my cell phone just in case I decided to turn around and come home.)

I was well aware that I was stepping out of my comfort zone and it had been years since I'd been brave enough to do that. During the entire trip there and all of the first evening in this little town, I asked myself 'why'. The answer was, of course, that I REALLY DID want to do this. I wanted to know more, and fortunately, even though I was nervous, my gut kept reminding me of this. As true as it was that I was near tears before I left, it is also true that I had been near tears weeks earlier as I viewed a slide show the photographer I was meeting up with had on his website. His images were beautiful and moving and I wanted to learn to make some of my own. I REALLY DID want to do this!! Thank goodness that the part of me that jumped in with both feet won out over the part of me that tried to hold myself back.

I returned a different person, confident that I possessed the courage to listen to my gut, try something out and follow a passion. To listen to my 'real self' and move forward. This workshop was just the first step of many, and since then I've been tuned in to others that have taken steps of their own: Brave friends, family members and acquaintances who recognize that they possess certain interests or talents and have had the courage to trust the process of exploring them. They have gone back to school, opened businesses, created web sites, taken time off, started bands, become yoga instructors, written and recorded songs, moved, changed jobs, changed careers and.......they all inspire me.

Wishing you a wonderful week with some great inspiration along the way!

Warmly, Margaret