The Flow

When the idea first struck to do something new every week for a year, I knew I would do it. There was no doubt, no question . . . just perfect faith.

However, that doesn't mean there was never any doubt. Just a few hours later, I thought, "How am I going to do this? I have no plan, and the new year's starting now. Maybe I should spend this year planning and do this next year instead." I count it as the biggest success that I did not listen to that voice. Not only would I have missed out on writing about the incredible things that happened that year, but let's be honest, if I put it off, I probably never would have done it.

Despite the fear of not being able to find new experiences, many of the new experiences found me. People started walking up to me and asking, "How'd you like to do this with me?" (One of these challenges was so scary, I initially said no, but fortunately my friend was persistent.) I also worked at a printing and art store where people consistently brought in flyers for events that tied in perfectly to my book. And the person Cutting Free needed to make a compelling story . . . he walked right in to Ogden Blue.

After I completed my year of new experiences, I started to have anxiety about how I would now turn them into a book. I wrote a journal entry worrying about how many pages it should be, whether to single or double space, and where to even begin. Regardless of the fear, I still started, and then my cousin offered to edit the chapters for me. Before I knew it, a friend of mine started a writer's club as part of her senior project. And more and more flowed into my life.

Now I'm at the point where the manuscript is finished, and I'm building an audience so that when Cutting Free comes out, people will be looking for it. Again, this new level began with lots of anxiety. I had even gone as far as to believe I had failed myself because I hadn't spent more time trying to build an audience while writing the manuscript. I'm not listening to this misguided voice. I have already felt more fulfillment than I expected by revisiting this blog. And I'm sitting in the right classrooms--the magazine article writing class and public speaking class I don't even need for my degree, but because I'm practically finished, I can take them. And the ideas for how I'm going to get the word out fast keep coming to me . . .

Life flows when we commit ourselves and act. The more I do this, the more I realize that while we must act, we never have to strain. It is a lot of work, yet there's nothing we'd rather do. Our works of brilliance take effort and persistence, but because these requirements are directly in line with our deepest truth, the process simply flows.