C is for COURAGE_You Cannot Create Without Courage

 

I am called Wolf Howl.

 

Soon you will hear my words on what two-leggeds

call Audio.

 



 But first, I would speak to you here, for you are DreamSinger's friends.

To create truly, you must have ...

Bravery

 

Woohitike—(wo-oh-hee-tee-keh)   Having or showing courage

 

 

 

Fortunately, most of us will not have to experience combat,

but we will have to cope with life’s challenges and overcome its obstacles.

 

Schoolyard bullies, rush hour traffic, injury,
illness, indifference, our own sense of inadequacy, unemployment, indecision, racial prejudice,
physical disability—
 

the list is practically endless.

 

There is a nearly constant assault on our sense of well-being and self-esteem,
not to mention an occasional or even frequent threat
of bodily harm.
 

Such is life.

 

 

 

We come and go, but the land is always here.

And the people who love it and understand it are the people who

value the rare fragile treasures

that are their friends and their dreams

who live upon it for such a short time.

 

Sometimes a neighbor whom we have disliked a lifetime for his arrogance and conceit

lets fall a single commonplace remark
that shows us another side,

another man, really;

a man uncertain, and puzzled, and in the dark like ourselves.

 

 

Bravery is an essential virtue because life demands it.
 

Whether it is cancer, a broken heart, a lost opportunity,
a withering rejection, an approaching hurricane,
a tough decision, or a dark alley,

 

life will continually throw challenges at us.

Any challenge is also an invitation, a standing invitation:

 

To learn, to grow, to become better.

 

Use those challenges to become a better writer.

 

 

 

 The Lakota hunter/warrior was always on the lookout for a mature ash tree

 that had been struck by lightning.

 

Such a tree had been dried and cured in an instant by the awesome power of lightning,

 

and any bows made from it were by far the strongest.

 

Lightning-struck ash trees were rare,

but they were preferred because they had suffered
ultimate adversity,

 

and ultimate adversity produces ultimate strength.

 

 

 

How much do you love to write?

 

Where there is great love, there are always miracles.

 

Trust in the miracle.
 

Trust in the lessons of your life.

 

There are some things you learn best in calm,
and some in storm.
 

You have endured both

and so you, too, will endure.

 

What is any art
but a mold to imprison for a moment
the shining elusive element

which is life itself-
 

life hurrying past us and running away,
too strong to stop, too sweet to lose.

 

Let your fiction grow out of the lessons beneath your pain.
 

Have the courage to endure that pain,

and you will produce great fiction.