Truth, Chutzpah and Joseph Campbell

Pastel by 81-year-old Lew Silvers.

Remember when The Power of Myth, Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell were water cooler conversation?  It was 1988 and we all wanted to ‘follow our bliss’.  We wanted to ‘make our heart sing’.  And it sounded easy enough to do.

So…how’d that work out for you?

Trying to follow our bliss is a little bit like trying to grab smoke.  The more we struggle, the more elusive it becomes. Twenty-two years later and I’m beginning to realize that while bliss is nice, it shouldn’t be the goal.  These days, I’m inclined to believe bliss is the reward for a living my truth.  These days, it’s chutzpah that makes my heart sing.

Last night I was organizing a few computer files and I stumbled upon a blog post I wrote three years ago.  The Mimm back than has managed to encourage this Mimm.  And so I’m posting the essay again.

It Takes Chutzpah

Yes, I’m one of them.  I’m one of those people who want to write a book.  We’re a dime a dozen.  We fill cyberspace, bookstores, writing clinics, and book clubs.  And how many of us will actually make it past verbally expressing our deepest secret: “I want to write a book.”  I imagine, very few.

I’m thinking about this because I’m sitting in a public space.  I’m people watching in between paragraphs.  A few moments ago one of my yoga students happened by and asked what I was up to.   I explained the blog, and the daily entry I promised my Life Coach and myself.  I explained, too, how I hoped to move out of body therapy over the next few years to focus on writing.

She then proceeded to tell me the amazing story of her friend who decided that most children’s books were rubbish and that she would write her own.  Rather than stopping there, she actually did it.  She wrote the book, she found an illustrator and then she hooked up with an agent!  The book hasn’t been published, but I don’t doubt for a moment that it will be.

Chutzpah.  The woman has chutzpah.  And we all know a little chutzpah goes a long way to realizing a dream.

When an idea makes our heart sing, why do we try to stop the music?  If I invested as much time trying to achieve my goals as I do telling myself why they’re impossible, think of how much closer I’d be to having them become living, breathing reality.

My yoga student’s friend decided to write a book, and from the moment she made that decision, the book existed.

I can decide, right now, this moment, to have not just her chutzpah, but her conviction and clarity of vision.  So what’s stopping me?

May we all have the chutzpah to live our truth in 2011.