Perseverance. We remember seeing this in movies when we kinda already know what’s at stake: winning the game, getting the guy, overcoming evil with good.
In real life, we may be just at the climactic moment of something in our lives, and we give up, sure that if there were going to be anything good for us with this thing, it would have come by now. The audience watching this movie about you gasps and then leaves early, throwing their discarded popcorn boxes at the screen, at your face.
Why not give them the rest of the movie?
Keep on with it then.
This week is particularly volatile for me. I was warned. I’m on week 6 of Julia Cameron’s Artist’s Way, the creative recovery program for artists. Julia warned, “This week may be volatile for you.” And I read it, but must have forgot. Good thing the week reminded me. I am writing . . . a lot. Two very big projects, one requested by an agent, another in cahoots with a novelist friend because we want to discover what we’re made of. I didn’t start these projects this week, I started them a few weeks ago, but these are the two things that in a movie, everyone would be holding their breath to see how it turns out. I picture myself on the screen, sitting here in my office in front of hundreds of already written pages, piles of reference books, a very tired laptop who never gets a break, and dozens of empty hot chocolate mugs scattered here, there, and everywhere. This is the moment in a movie when the main character gets a brainstorm, powers through, usually a cluster of scenes showing this set to a nice musical interlude. These are the guts of an overcoming resistance movie.
Can I do it? I don’t know. Am I going to give up? Absolutely not. Am I going to keep powering through, even though the musical interlude is over (or on repeat for the next four months)? Yes. Has God told me to stop? Nope.
And that’s the key. We think those stupid Israelites wandered in a desert with only minimal attention from God. Truth is, they had His complete focus. At the moment they needed water, He had Moses strike a rock and there was water. The moment they needed bread, manna came from heaven. The moment they needed meat to sacrifice, there were birds that actually wanted to be caught. What?
I keep thinking of the desert. Perhaps the movie screen should show me sitting out in a desert (wild, uncombed hair and all), thirsty, and starving, craving sustenance. And I can picture in my mind my God coming to my rescue, giving me just what I need the moment I need it.
Writing in my office this week is my desert. I don’t have comforting things like I had before (“I wanna go back to Egypt!”), but I can survive here. I have what I need the moment I need it.
Keep walking.
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One step at a time, one moment at a time. He’s with us all the way.
Yes, indeed! Onward.
I’ve done Julia Cameron’s Artists’ Way workbook before, and it’s helpful, so long as you don’t think of it as a “have to” but a “get to.” How exciting that you have these two projects, Trish! I’m in a writing funk right now…. hitting a wall on whether or not to proceed with a memoir I’ve been working on for a couple of years and playing with other ideas instead and just feeling uninspired. Going to the beach for a week on Saturday and no, it’s not the desert where we get the work done, but maybe it will kick-start me back on the path. Thanks for your (always inspirational) posts.
Susan, yes, a “get to.” I love this book. Huge serendipitous things happening as a result. I will be thinking of you as you are off at the beach. Praying for inspiration and clarity for you.
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