Life as a daring adventure
“Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” (Helen Keller)
Helen Keller arrived at her assessment of life through her hands-on exploration of the world around her, and she expressed her experience in a language all her own. Blind and deaf at birth, Keller never saw the sun rise or set. While she might have spent her life institutionalized in sensory isolation, or medicated to control her emotional outbursts, she went on to make unprecedented contributions to the world. She became an renowned educator and author not despite her disabilities but because of them. The limitations of Keller’s physical body shaped her genius. She became a hero to our world because she accepted the role of hero in her own. For Keller, the ultimate creative adventure was being alive.
By our cultural standards, Keller was not an artist; however, she was as creative a human being as ever lived. Not only did she take what she had been given, and make a better life with it; she also grounded her personal achievements in tangible results that would change the world. A life is created stone by stone, particle by particle; and, like Keller, the quality of our lives rests in our own hands.
Life itself is your greatest creative collaborator, as you dance your way through the process. Sometimes the dance is a waltz, sometimes a tango, sometimes a wild ecstatic abandon. Sometimes Life leads the dance, and sometimes you do, but you are always participating in the process together. It is easier and more enjoyable when you know the steps.
No matter how wealthy, how beautiful, how intelligent, how popular, or how far from these things you may feel, you are here on Earth for a reason. You have a contribution to make, the making of which will change your life, not only by the results you produce but also by the way in which you undertake the task.
Life does not come with a set of instructions; each of us must find our own way. If you can, with a little help, see your life from a higher viewpoint, you can relax and trust the process just that much more.
The Wheel of Creativity is a framework for a process as ancient and intimate as Life itself, which I have tested and refined through the experiments of my own life. It is more a poem than an equation, waiting for you to enter the spaces in between and find yourself there. Step outside tonight as the sun is setting and listen to what cannot be heard with your ears. Listen to Life, for what it has to say to you about your place in it, and how you are meant to jump in and participate in it, as the greatest adventure of all.
