We have faced the world side by side, mugs in hand, too many times to count. Enough times to know that some things don’t get fixed. But that does not shake our faith. No situation is beyond the creative power of being heard.
I was saying that I am just so scared – even scared that by simply wanting a solution I have jinxed it into impossibility. You were telling me – I think – how you have determined there are some thoughts you just won’t let yourself have. But, I replied, how can I fend off thoughts that are more than thoughts, when they describe how my world really seems to be?
I don’t know what you said next, but an inner voice rose clearly above our conversation:
“Don’t look down. Don’t look down. Don’t look down.” And I realized at once that there is only one way ahead when doing the impossible is the only option.
When you are crossing the invisible bridge to nowhere; when you are in mid-flight without any wings; when you are hanging by your sweat-soaked finger nails – remember these 3 words:
Don’t. Look. Down.
I’ve had times in my job when I had to paint in a cherry picker – a genie – way up high in the air. Maybe 40 feet above the stage. The genie is up as high as it can go and I am standing in a three foot square box that is about waist high at the end of the extension. Just the slightest adjustment in stance, shift of weight from one foot to the other causes the box to sway. It feels incredibly scary just to stand, let alone to reach out with a paint brush and try to paint a straight line at the end of my reach. My arm is shaking yet I know I have to do it. So I call on my three guides. 1. Don’t. Look. Down. 2. Find my center and breathe from there 3. Put all my attention, and I mean ALL my attention, and focus on what I have to do. And do it.
Oh Rebecca, reading this makes my palms sweat, it’s so vivid! Yes. All my attention on what I have to do. Got it!
Indeed!