“To live a life creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” Joseph Chilton Pearce

What would you and I do if we knew we could not fail? Have you, too, heard that question? It has never seemed quite right to me.  I think the better, more audacious question is “What would we do if we knew we would be successful?” 

If we knew, for example, that our abstract acrylic painting of a still life vase of flowers would qualify for a juried art show. If we knew we could play beautifully “Stairway to Heaven” despite our “status” as a novice musician. If you or I knew our blogs would be read, enjoyed and even be inspirational in the lives of others.

Would that prospect scare us silly? Or motivate us to make it happen? Would it make us think how grandiose and ridiculous our dreams are? Or smile at our future success?

Since I was a small child, I have loved to read words, write words and study words. I have felt intimate kinship with an author as she describes the taste of her grandmother’s homemade biscuits or when her description of her home place conjures deep memories of an old white house in the country where I played with my sister and cousins.

I have loved adjectives and adverbs and phrases in books that I carefully highlight in yellow because the meaning for me is so visceral. I have loved writing in those precious moments when The Divine takes over, an hour flies by and suddenly, I have written something beautiful.

So why is it that I and, perhaps you, don’t assign our creative pursuits a place on our calendars like we do an office meeting or a dental appointment?

Today I give my Inner Child permission full permission to create while I silence my Inner Editor’s negative talk, criticism and judgment. Instead, I’ll allow her to write meaningful prose and to paint a lovely abstract of a still life vase of flowers.  I want to hear your rendition of Stairway to Heaven, read your childhood stories and marvel at your sculpture. 

What does your playful and creative child want to do today? Enjoy her success!