Facing Fears

A key component of good mojo is courage. In some ways, mojo IS courage, because if you are afraid to try - for whatever reason - it's basically guaranteed that mojo ain't showin' up.

I come across as rather fearless, I've been told. I've even been called "scary" more than once...which is hilarious. I'm not scared of some things that frighten many people, like performing on stage or raising four boys alone for months at a time... But I have plenty of other heebie-jeebies.

Power tools, for one. I have used them... I took Shop in Jr High and I loved it. Honest I did! But that was a LONG time ago. And again, in Theatre School when I was a Senior, we built our own sets. I developed an abiding affection for the radial arm saw... But again, it's been awhile. And I was always scared of power hand tools.

It's time for that silly fear to begone! I was afraid mainly because I was an overweight weakling. But I am now a lithe and fit little person. I have MUSCLES, yo. So I don't need to be afraid of not being able to control those handy gadgets. Baby step that I took the other day? I wanted to hang a funky wooden zebra mask on my wall...it had no hanger... I took a deep breath, grabbed my Dremel, and I DRILLED that bad boy. Small. Silly. But it made me feel GOOD. (and it looks darn good on the wall too, sayin?)

Baby step two? Building those monster shelves that I talked about yesterday. I decided there was no reason to wait for someone else to do it for me. And let me tell you, just loading them onto the cart and into the van by myself was rather impressive. ARRrrrrr!

But just moments ago I took my biggest step. I was actually almost panicking.... I applied for my first juried show. I've NEVER done a craft show.... And I'm trying to get my feet wet with a juried one. I held my breath and told myself repeatedly "The worst they can do is say no. The worst they can do is say no" Of course...if they say yes then the fear of actually DOING the show will hit. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

The important thing is that, just by taking these steps, I feel braver. I *am* braver. I know I can....which means I can do MORE. Now that's mojo-magic, right there.