Multo.com :: Visual Magic

Believe & Act

You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be. And one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid…You refuse to do it because you want to live longer…You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid you will be criticized, or that you will lose your popularity, and you’re afraid someone will stab you, or shoot at you, or bomb your house; so you refuse to take the stand. Well, you may go on and live until you are 90, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Sermon “But If Not,” November 5, 1967

I have been struggling with an edit. Avoiding, analyzing, dancing back and forth and circling around, looking for comfort. There is no comfort, except the end of the job. There is no cessation of thought in what I do, I must be thinking, creating, paying attention ALL THE TIME. So I dance.

The dance.

Of…

….procrastination…

Even this missive, as helpful as it will be in motivating me, is an avoidance. But I need breaks. Sleep, rest, cartoon, food, sex, bath, workout, run in the sun, play with the cat, apple juice and yoga breaks.

I will finish, because “The Art of Love & Struggle” is an important and lovely film. Women who have seen earlier cuts have fallen in love with it. And that’s a one hour, forty minute cut. I’ve seen women sit through it open mouthed, cheering, crying, and laughing. And a lot of head nodding. This film is a slice of the female artist’s life, as seen through the lens of Hip Hop, their creative vehicle. These ladies have a lot to say that many people need to hear.

Its time to let the spirit rise and take on the edit again. The option to quit isn’t available. What kind of moment would that be, truly a moment of death, a pause, slow up and tune down of life and creativity.

We will all face a moment that will require us to easily, gently, let our spirits rise, to the challenge of peace. Peace is a love that doesn’t own, judge, cling, or exclude. Peace will one day flow like water over this spiritually parched planet, filling in crevices with love and inner quiet, filling bellies with food and clean water, filling minds with knowledge and understanding. We can choose to rise up angrily, or gracefully, modeling the peace and civility that should come forth freely from every being.

And we can choose to run away. I often choose this option. It can lead to hilarious consequences, but consequences all the same. It can be the moment where you deny your ability to be strong, to be present, to be love, because you don’t believe its possible.

Believe.

And anything is possible.

Act.

And your life will begin.

Peace,
Melissa