Limits have crossed my radar twice in two days. That’s usually my indicator that the universe is communicating something when it appears in many unrelated places.
Today I was enjoying my workout on the Koko smart trainer. I was in the middle of the chest press when my eyes caught the weight. I was pressing 50 pounds. For all my 10 years in a regular gym I completely pulled the weight pin out and just used the machine, thinking even 30 pounds was too heavy for me. When I got to the bicep curls I laughed to myself. 50 pounds on these, too. For TEN years I did TEN pounds thinking I couldn’t lift anything heavier. Why did I limit myself so?
Thinking back to a conversation over the weekend I had with my sis, I realized did it again. For all three years in my writing career I never once considered illustrating my own work, let alone someone else’s. I was discussing my current illustrating project with my sister and she said the most unexpected thing. She said she never really saw me as a writer. She always saw me as an illustrator. She said art always stood out in the way she viewed me over the years. That took me by surprise. Then tonight, in my writing group, another author ask me if I’d considered illustrating her picture book. Again, why was I limiting myself so?
I think this limiting ourselves creeps up without us knowing. I don’t think we do it intentionally. For me, it just doesn’t occur to me that I’m operating within limits until, by shear accident, I bust through them. Two times, in too few days though, points out that I should be paying attention. Maybe there are other areas where I’ve just sunk into my comfort zone and never even realized it.
How about you? If you take a careful look around, is there some limit you can push?
And so, as another day goes by, when I drove in the driveway tonight the full moon seemed to whisper: “You know what they say, shoot for the moon. If you miss, you’ll be a star”, and..I have written.
March 27, 5:27 a.m. EDT —Full Worm Moon: In this month the ground softens and the earthworm casts reappear, inviting the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signals the end of winter, or the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. TheFull Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. [Phases of the Moon in 2013: A Lunar Calendar]
Leave a Reply