Today is a Great Day to Shed Those Cement Shoes?

It has been a busy month, so much so that I have art sitting, waiting to be added to this blog. This piece was a fun one as I had an idea and had to let it run wild. I read this quote from Abraham Maslow and realized it needed to be expressed in an untraditional way:

One can choose to go backwards towards safety or forward towards growth. Growth must be chosen again and again. Fear must be overcome again and again.

– Abraham Maslow 1970

I like how the words twist and turn as do our emotions while we are making daily choices on how to live. Choosing growth means hard work, often leaving what we are accustomed to behind us while we steer straight forward into strange new lands. Or it means spending less time on comfortable things and more time on unfamiliar ones. However we grow, you can be sure it will be new, different, uncomfortable and sometimes a bit daunting.

And then there are days when courage seems elusive and fear somehow rules our thoughts. We hunker down and stay safe while our courage and ideas fade into the background. All too often that fear turns days into weeks, and weeks into months. And before we know it so much time has passed that we find it truly difficult to get moving in a forward direction. Guilt, shame, disappointment in ourselves, all work together to stifle our ability to shake it off and get back in the game. Unfortunately then more time passes and our energy, sparks of joy and creativity feel trapped in cement shoes; we find ourselves powerless to move. Yet no matter how we feel, we always have a choice.

When we realize we do have power to move, no matter how those cement shoes feel; THAT is when growth happens. We choose to do just one thing that day to shake off these clouds and that one thing reminds us that all is not lost. And the next day we do one thing and then another. And before we know it we are moving again, forward motion has occurred and we can see the game we want to get back to. So we keep moving, shed those cement shoes and one step leads to another step until we are unstoppable. And yes this is a process we will experience over and over again as we become who we were meant to become. It’s called growing up, growing old, growing wise.

So today as you navigate your own twists and turns in whatever it is you are battling, remember that you always have a choice. Each and every day gives us the gift of choice. We can choose to move towards growth and gladly do the work, or we can choose safety and stand still. OR we can choose fear and strap on our custom made cement shoes and do nothing which is also a choice. What say today you choose just one step forward beyond where you were yesterday? Today is a great day to shed those cement shoes…