Learning to Fly
Aug. 30th, 2003 10:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teleidoplexThe trick to flying is forgetting to fall.
This is the magic that I learned from Saturday morning cartoons.
When you watch Elmer Fudd, or Wile E. Coyote or whomever, you'll notice that they remain in midair until the moment when they realize they should be falling. Bugs Bunny and Road Runner never fall, because they forget that they are supposed to.
This is a magical practice that can be applied to many things in addition to flying.
It is the trick to getting a great job (Scheid Vineyards), the trick to going back to school (Penn), the trick to being in love (David), the trick to learning to sew or sing or dance. It is the key to succeeding in any worthwhile endeavor. You fling yourself out there, leaving your doubts and dreads stranded on the terra firma of the cliffside. You succeed because you forget that there's the chance that you could fail. You fly.
It is both more and less difficult than it sounds. When I have managed it, it has served me very well.
Some people call it by other names -- trust, or faith. I tend to look askance at these terms, because I don't think they capture that essence of jumping out into the unknown and making the conscious decision *not* to fall. Forgetting to fall requires an initial act of will, followed by a whole lot of Tao (practicing not-doing, or not-falling).
I've forgotten how to forget to fall recently. I've bogged myself down on the cliffside with my doubts and fears, and my work and life and enthusiasm for both has suffered as a result. I'm remembering now, and because of this I think this is going to be a great semester, a great year, a great new phase in my life.
Ready or not, here I come.
*leap*
This is the magic that I learned from Saturday morning cartoons.
When you watch Elmer Fudd, or Wile E. Coyote or whomever, you'll notice that they remain in midair until the moment when they realize they should be falling. Bugs Bunny and Road Runner never fall, because they forget that they are supposed to.
This is a magical practice that can be applied to many things in addition to flying.
It is the trick to getting a great job (Scheid Vineyards), the trick to going back to school (Penn), the trick to being in love (David), the trick to learning to sew or sing or dance. It is the key to succeeding in any worthwhile endeavor. You fling yourself out there, leaving your doubts and dreads stranded on the terra firma of the cliffside. You succeed because you forget that there's the chance that you could fail. You fly.
It is both more and less difficult than it sounds. When I have managed it, it has served me very well.
Some people call it by other names -- trust, or faith. I tend to look askance at these terms, because I don't think they capture that essence of jumping out into the unknown and making the conscious decision *not* to fall. Forgetting to fall requires an initial act of will, followed by a whole lot of Tao (practicing not-doing, or not-falling).
I've forgotten how to forget to fall recently. I've bogged myself down on the cliffside with my doubts and fears, and my work and life and enthusiasm for both has suffered as a result. I'm remembering now, and because of this I think this is going to be a great semester, a great year, a great new phase in my life.
Ready or not, here I come.
*leap*
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no subject
Date: 2003-08-30 05:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-30 06:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-08-30 10:16 pm (UTC)It's egotism, really. I'm too damn good at <fill in the blank> to possibly not succeed. *^_^* Hey, a healthy dose of overweening self-confidence can be a very useful thing . . . .
On the other hand, the day I go for something and fall on my face, it's going to be extremely hard to deal with.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-31 01:34 am (UTC)And faith is synonymous with leaping to me, Alyc. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade taught me this, along with the fact that penitent = kneeling = not getting decapitated. Both lessons have served me well. See ya in the stratosphere.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-31 04:58 am (UTC)When you are jumping without a net realize that there will always be a net.
Also realize it may not be the net you were expecting...
Do not try to fly.
Be someone with wings.
I know you are great.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-31 12:47 pm (UTC)Flights of Faith
Date: 2003-09-04 11:01 pm (UTC)Thank God you have remembered. Next time you get stuck in the mud on the cliffside, just look at the fairy on your shoulder.
You are so beautiful in flight.