Saying Yes

Say yes to the broccoli bolting, wild and free.

I imagine that yes is the only living thing.

~e. e. cummings

Last week I talked about no, but obviously, we cannot live by "no" alone. To create worlds worth visiting, you have to be equipped to travel to strange, unknown lands and to carry back a story. To create a character worth knowing, you must crawl inside someone else's skin and look out from his/her/its eyes. How do you gain these near magical powers of creative intuition? By saying yes, here in the world. Our world. The one filled with traffic delays and laundry, stubbed toes and kid's tantrums. While you're busy sopping up sticky melted popsicles and pulling weeds, remember to say "yes."

Say yes to what life throws at you, the great days and the awful days.

Say yes to the dear friends and the difficult people.

Say yes to the thoughts and feelings that frighten or bewilder you.

Say yes to your daydreams. 

Carve out a little real estate in your head where ideas can grow into stories. 

Say yes to what if... or else... and then...

Say yes to what is difficult to witness, hard to understand, and impossible to express.

Say yes to this moment. This one. Right now. 

Say yes to company, and then say yes to solitude

Say yes to play, actual play, Frisbee, tag, wrestling on the living room floor, 

and then sit down and say yes to the work.

Say yes to the "shitty first draft."

Say yes to the work of revision.

Say yes to finishing and to sending the story out.

Say yes to the rejection, the acceptance, the misinterpretation...

And finally, say yes to the next story because it can't wait to be told.