It takes courage to be a writer, artist or musician

It’s not exactly the same kind of courage it takes to venture alone into the wilderness for ten days at a time—there’s not really anything threatening my life such as wild cougars and bears; I don’t have to worry about falling over a cliff and no one ever finding me; I’m safely tucked away from storms—but in another sense there’s a whole lot more at stake.

Fear of rejection threatens my writing and artistic life. What if I do my very best and no one likes it? Or worse yet . . . what if no one cares enough to even look at it? What if I get lost in the slush pile? It’s easy to fall into a pit of depression and stay there. And it takes a lot of strength and resolution to claw my way back up once I hit bottom. Talk about storms. Horrendous black skies full of lightning come out of nowhere and tend to circle back and hit me again when I’ve barely come up for breath—the storms of looming deadlines, a blank page and blank mind, bills needing to be paid, and the hurry up and wait that drives me crazy. Discouragement strikes me down hard.

So where do we get courage?

That’s my theme for this coming week. I plan to weather the storms enough to give us all a bit of courage for each day, Monday through Friday. Be sure to check back for your own special dose.