Midlife Creative

#1. Are you a risk taker?

#2. What’s the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done?

My answer to these questions before this year would be

# 1 – NO

#2 – I don’t believe in doing dangerous things!

Then came the decision to travel for 6 months. We moved out of our house of 10 years and hit the road with a rough plan, but many details yet to fill in. I struggled with how people would react to this choice we had made. It seemed reckless and crazy. It was out of character from the play it safe environment I had been raised in. What would people say about us? Would we fail, and come running home to a chorus of “I told you sos”. Would our younger kids resent us for taking them out of school? How would our older kids react to not having a home to come back to on breaks? What if there was a crisis or things didn’t go like we expected?

We packed up our van and hit the road on November 1st, 2022. I felt confident that this was the year to take this trip, and that God would take care of us and take care of our big kids who were not with us.

I had read that when you know that you are meant to do something and you step out and move toward that idea, things begin to work in your favor. That’s exactly what began to happen. People got excited for us and began to give us gifts, introduced us to people they knew, and offered practical suggestions.

“Leap, and the net will appear” is a phrase originally penned by James Burroughs, and re-quoted in countless other places. I clung to this phrase in the days before we left when I felt scared or unsure.

Oftentimes when we take a chance, others respond with help, and circumstances align in our favor. Julia Cameron in her book The Artist’s Way calls this synchronicity. The miracles of everything falling into place to support our travel vision cannot be denied or dismissed as luck. Many times during the trip, we have seen God open doors for us to stay in places we weren’t expecting.

If we wait until we are ready to do something that seems big or scary, we may never do it. We will never feel ready to take a risk.
Living this creative life takes faith and trust.

I don’t pretend to have it all figured out. I still struggle with fear and doubt, but taking risks gets easier the more I do it.

I’ve been looking at the life of Jesus lately and have been noticing that He never called his disciples to be safe.
If Jesus were walking with me right now, I believe He would not say be safe, but instead, be brave.

Brave means stepping outside my comfort zone. Brave means doing things that scare me. A few examples for me are

• saying yes to being a guest on a podcast

• becoming who I want to be instead of who others expect me to be and
• calling myself an artist and a leader

What does being brave look like for you right now? Is there something you need to step into, but don’t feel ready? Take a couple steps forward. You can do it!