Begin

Reach. Let the unexpected thought arrive. Open up a little: utter the first syllable.

Feels awkward? A squawk more than the dulcet tones you were anticipating? Try again.

Clear your throat. Purse your lips. Run your tongue across tremoring skin from which you will begin. Breathe in through the nose. Open the mouth. Let the air vibrate through the vocal chords. You have begun. Celebrate! Rejoice! Sing!

Let the syllables warble and watch how your eyebrows arc, your chin tilts, your hands float in response to deep diaphragmatic breathing. See your body sway; your toes wriggle a rhythm. You speak, you move, you dance! Celebrate! Create!

Still not happy? Oh? It doesn’t seem like good singing or real dancing? Perhaps not. Does that really matter?

It’s beginning: it’s creating. You are making and sensing and trying. You are bold and brave and adventurous. You have begun a journey of creativity with nothing but skin and bone and soul: a magnificent accomplishment! Bravo! Hear the applause of winged angels riding zephyrs whilst hoop-la-ing in giddy delight. Keep at it!

Warble in strange places. Dance in your kitchen.. after you put down the knife. Or perhaps not?

Tell stories with eyes flashing and teeth grinding. Tell even stranger stories with whatever you have; however it comes. Reach for it! Seek out the laughter in the moment of despair. It’s there: it’s always there..

There are no rules: only courage. Reach. Try out those tentative thoughts. Go on and ask.

And ask lots of questions with your mind and your eyes and your body and your spirit. Challenge your own thoughts and try. Make up new questions that reduce people to tears in strange revelations of joy.. through your very own tentative warbling.

And then, try again!

Utter the first syllable: open up a little. Let the unexpected thought arrive. Reach and begin.