I've been thinking about what holds me back. What keeps me in the same place in my life, day after day, week after week. The answer, I suppose, should have been obvious, but I still felt the need to meditate on it so I'm back to dreamwork inspired art this week.
Emotions flow in and out of our minds like the endless, persistent drip of a faucet: fear, anxiety, hope, and then more fear.
I reach the bottom of my spiral staircase and hesitate. Stretching out in all directions is a large, water lily covered lake. The water appears murky. I can't see a bottom. How can I walk down into it? I will drown. I can't breathe underwater.
Still, this is why I am here. I take a deep breath and start to wade into the lake; deeper and deeper and deeper until at last my mouth and nose are submerged.
I thought I would be overwhelmed. I thought I would drown, but somehow I don't.
I take a deep mermaid breath and press on.
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Maybe something seems like it will be too much. You can't possibly breathe such rarefied air. It's outside your comfort zone. You just aren't good enough.
Maybe, absolutely, maybe, but unless you try, you'll never know if you've been a mermaid all along and just never realized it.