2020 was the year when time stopped. 2021 is only a few weeks in and its shaping up to be the year when time flew. Why?
Things are changing. A lot of things have changed and there is so much more to come. Both in the world at large and in my own life.
My mantra this year is: Time to Create.
Irregardless of the directions time goes or stops and no matter where I seem to wander, I do know one thing. I’m a creator. I’m passionate about stories and I love inspiring others with their own creativity and creation.
It took a year of upheaval for me to finally settle into that role and be comfortable with acknowleding all of my passions equally. Not one of them, be it my music, my poetry, my stories, my teaching, is greater than the other. They all work in tandem.
I was recently reminded by the symbol of the Phoenix that we’ve got everything we need. We just have to step out of our doors and chase that which we desire.
Then, when we’re on the road, we sometimes wanderer by choice, we sometimes get lost by accident (as I did many times when I travelled for two years) and overall, it’s only ourselves who make the limits with our labels and excuses and self-judgements.
Whatever it takes and however long it takes, time does not matter. Just do the thing you’ve always wanted to do. If that means leaning on others for help, or telling them you need to do this alone, or totally upending the direction your life was taking, then make that decision now and go do the thing. Remember, as the Phoenix is fire, so are we. In fact…
We have fire in our hearts!
We are enough, however we may be, but we can always be more, if we challenge ourselves to step onto the road and let our feet run. Recently, I had an interesting interaction with an individual in my community about how she felt creatively stuck and she wondered if she had a mechanism in her makeup that was making her this way.
What came out of our interaction was this:
The only thing that is making you stuck is you. You cause your own stagnacy when you place blame on being “made” a certain way by external forces; be it genetics, family opinions or the basic things we all must do and be in order to exist within society.
When you are stagnant, you need to let go of blaming something external, shift toward changing your internal rhetoric.
These moments always stand out for me because I was born without a corpus callosum and by genetic and scientific rights I should be someone with severe learning disability who is unable to function independently. After all, that’s the way 95% of people with agensis of the corpus callosum are. So why am I not the same? (Hint: it’s the magic of our own willpower and willingness to learn and grow, not our stubborn refusal to see that we, always, are the only ones to blame for our situations).
Thankfully, I have that willpower in this lifetime, because I never let that label and those expectations that I was going to be mentally less-than every other person stop me.
I took that external label, that literal, physical difference in my brain from every other person and said, “nothing is standing in the way of what I want to achieve. And I want adventure. I want to explore. I want to dream and to learn and to do magical things.”
And so I did. (Granted I was also very fortunate to have parents who pushed me and taught me about never giving up and never giving in).
If there was ever any proof that nuture wins out over nature, that would it. What we think shapes the literal makeup of our minds, irregardless of missing parts or imbalanced chemistry. I’m the walking, talking example.
My point through all of this is, whatever we think stands in our way…it’s never something outside of ourselves. It’s always, always in our own head.
Even something like a lack of work because of a global pandemic, something I know we all experienced and struggled with. That too, is all only in our heads because it is, as Gandalf says in The Fellowship of the Ring, up to us ” to decide what to do with the time that is given to us.”
When time stops and the world seems to fall apart, will you let yourself fall apart along with it and drown, or will you stand up, fight for what you believe, for yourself and for others?
Will you step out your door and seek that which you desire, knowing that what you desire may not always look like the treasure you assumed it to be?
It will be exactly what you needed.
You have fire in your heart. What are you going to do with it?
To that end I have some exciting announcements to make!
First of all, at the end of 2020 I finally published my first poetry book. Finally!
It’s for all of you dreamers, wanderers and fellow imaginists, celebrating the magic that exists here on Earth and in the universe. You can check it out here: Invocations to Horizons
Please leave a review if you have the time, each one helps!
Next up on my announcements; I’ve started a Patreon community!
Patreon is a platform designed for creators who wish to interact directly with their audience and for every bit of support a patron gives, the creator will give something in return (a lot like the old-fashioned days of patronage!).
I have a number of different tiers depending on what you are comfortable giving in support of my work and many exciting perks such as exclusive, weekly livestreams, workshops, workbooks, downloadable files of my music and more!
You can read up more about my Patreon community here: https://www.patreon.com/arreynolds
I’ve also got a new writing project underway, of which I’ll be sharing excerpts from, over the next few months. I’m in the process of editing a co-written, fun romp of a fantasy novel.
It’s set during an alternate Victorian period and follows the adventures of a gentleman thief, automaton, pirate and ronin who are often at odds with the law. They team up to halt the destined plans of providence, set by a wily organization, with a little help from a trickster rabbit.
Keep an eye out for excerpts I’ll be posting here, as well as upcoming workshops and events for Patreon supporters!
Let’s make this year a Time to Create!
Until we meet again, may the wind be always at your back!
ARR
