Tuesday, 14 April 2015

"Ode to the Dreamer" (Joshua Luke Smith)

I'm making some life-changes and, from a few of the reactions so far, I'm worried that I've accidentally made it look easy.

I get it. It's tempting to look at other people's lives and think that their struggles aren't as difficult as our own. Or that they have some innate ability to handle life with fewer hiccups along the way. But it's bollocks. Most people find parts of their lives really, really hard - even if they don't say so.

I don't tend to share "my insecurities" with many people; I need to be sure of a constructive response. I don't even like to claim them as my own. There are things that make me feel small and afraid, but I don't choose to wrap them into the way I define myself. That doesn't mean they're not there, or that I won't need or ask for help.

But as much as we all need support in our weakness, I actually think our greater need is support to be strong.

We need to be surrounded by people who let us be brilliant and vulnerably glorious. When I start daring to dream and begin to follow through, when I'm doing the hard work of putting my money where my mouth is and I'm persevering in the face of uncertainty and personal cost - that's when I need encouragement the most.

I crave an audience of yes-sayers. I want an army of people who believe in impossibilities and, better still, live out that belief in their everyday lives. I want inspiration, iron sharpening iron.

That's when I put on "Ode to the Dreamer" by Joshua Luke Smith. I put it on repeat, I sing along with an inevitable head-bop and I remember this beautiful collective of artists who are continually putting themselves out on a limb, doing incredible work to remind us of who we really are and what we're really capable of.

"I believe you have a hope and a future, a hope and a future - darlin' I believe."

This is how it should be. Instead of feeling intimidated and buying into lies that other people are more "sorted" than us, let's borrow each other's bravery. If they can do it, I can do it. If I can do it, you can definitely do it.