Vulnerability

Putting anything out into the world comes with risk. The more you reveal your tender places, the riskier it becomes.

I was reminded of this last week when I set up the Zen At Play page on Facebook. Especially the part where I sent some invitations to friends, suggesting that they could become fans if they wanted to. (Oh, dude! Fans? They’re going to think I’m the most arrogant person in the world, and they’ll be annoyed that I’ve put them in this awkward position, and nobody wants to be a fan of my strange little blog anyway, and nobody will come and I’ll have to close down the page and hide.)

Yeah, like that.

Then I happened to be playing on Twitter today when Charlie Gilkey linked to his new blog post. He had, at last, picked up his guitar and recorded himself singing David Gray’s Birds Without Wings.

It’s beautiful.

Beautiful because the dude can sing.

Beautiful because Charlie was scared to be putting this aspect of himself out into the world, and he said so. (Actually, that’s the point of his post. The awesomeness of his performance is a delightful bonus.)

Beautiful because of the support that came flooding in from friends and well-wishers, before and after he posted.

So I guess this is where I could talk about the importance of Doing Your Thing.

Or about detachment.

Or the idea that your work is not about you.

But I don’t want to.

I’d much rather say that it’s good if you can create a safe place to land when you’re busting out your most challenging moves.

It’s even better if you can be that safe place to land.

For yourself, and for others.

Because the scariest part of putting your stuff out there is not what others will say to or about you if you land on your butt.

The scariest part is what you’ll tell yourself.

Be a safe place to land.

I’ll try to remember. I hope you will too.

Maybe we can remind each other sometimes.

xo

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