Do you ever feel like you are on the edge of a cliff, scared to leap and fall headfirst into the ravine?
Do you desperately want to make changes in your Art, but find yourself rooted to the spot, frozen as you stare into the chasm?
I mean….it’s a looooong way down, and how do Artists actually MAKE it to the other side??
I remember this place. I’d walk out of an audition, crestfallen, after not being kept. I’d hear other singers, the voices soaring out of their mouths, effortlessly.
And yet, mine was stuck in my throat.
As I choked back my embarrassment and shame, I’d feel myself saying,
Why do I find myself here again?
Standing on the edge of the cliff, so confused and frustrated, I didn’t want to be here anymore.
How do I get THERE??
That place across the chasm, NOT on the edge of the cliff.
Have you ever felt this?
Four years ago, I went to visit my aunt and uncle in San Diego for Christmas. It was my first holiday season being divorced, and I was a mess.
I had just survived the worst year of my life and was licking my wounds from car accidents, robberies, and loss.
I was doing the best I could to find some seasonal joy, but really found myself asking,
What do the holidays mean to me now?
We went to Point Loma, this glorious monument overlooking all of San Diego.
The sun was shining
The wind was whipping through my hair…
I jumped up on the stone wall along the walkways and felt the wind moving through me. I asked my mother to take a picture of me, standing on the edge with the whole San Diego Bay behind me.
For one of the first times that year, I was feeling a sense of hope and freedom.
My mother nervously asked me to come down. I looked at the picture of myself, standing alone, and saw a new strength. Yes, I spent many days still crying, but standing on the edge of the wall, I was seeing something new.
Not just in the grand expanse of the San Diego Bay, but in myself.
Where are you right now in your Art?
What is wanting to be birthed in you?
Are you going to the edge to allow it to emerge?
It seems, that’s when it comes out.
Just this past week, I found myself back at Point Loma, for the first time since 2013.
The San Diego Bay was there, the lighthouse, my aunt, and the beautiful expanse….
And something else. Something I could barely even imagine before.
My man.
As we walked around to the Pacific side, I saw a cliff overlooking the ocean.
I asked him to come out there with me, and for my aunt to take a picture.
What was captured in that moment was one of the most vital and moving pictures I’ve ever had.
Four years ago, I stood on the Bay side, wanting and hoping things would change.
I stood at my edge, scared and feeling doubt if Christmas would ever be joyful again.
And now, we sat together overlooking the Pacific Ocean….
On the other side.
I could have stayed trapped and comfortable, but I knew more waited.
Indeed, on that wall four years ago, something emerged…a longing, to not only find lasting love, but create an Artistic life that fed my soul.
And while I had NO idea how it would manifest, I stayed on the edge.
And I shared my voice as an Artist….with MUCH different results.
So what is crying to come forth for you?
If you stayed on your edge, what would emerge?
What’s in your journey from the Bay to your Ocean?