Reject Rejection

(click to enlarge)

I painted the above in PS to go with the Leah's theme in CED Challenge. Several layers went into this, as I was working to create a nebulous textured look. Like my dreams.

I have been working with my dreams the past few days. I am still having trouble remembering them. I was starting to worry, and then I let go. Because really? I will remember a dream when I need to. Obviously right now, I don't. It doesn't help that I have a 12 pound furball meowing me awake every morning! :)

But.

I will not allow this to become a roadblock or another cause for failure. Which brings me to my other online endeavour...

We are in week 9, of the wonderful Jamie's 12 Secrets Book Club, and the topic in this chapter is Roadblocks and Rejection.

Yuck!

Very few of us have not experienced these. The very frustrating "Do not pass Go. Do not collect 200 dollars." Pooh.

Rather than deal ad nauseum about my many, many, many (did I mention many?) roadblocks and rejections, I think it might be helpful for myself and anyone reading to discuss dealing with them. Here are some of my strategies.

The Cocoon and Wallow

This is where we curl up into a ball, preferably with a blanket, a box of tissues, and ice cream. We go over and over this latest stumbling block or heartbreaking devastation, crying and numbing our insides with the cool stuff. Soap operas may or may not be involved.

This might be okay for a short period. It's a time to regenerate and restore. But if it's prolonged, then it becomes this self-fulfilling prophecy of doom. Statements like "I will never make it"; "I suck"; "No one wants what I have to offer" start to play like broken records in our heads. The creepy gremlins have a street party in honor of our demise. This is when it's time to let go of the self-pity, and kick some butt.

The Theseus Method

This is where we arm ourselves with self-confidence and will power, and circumvent the maze of roadblocks in search of the Minotaur. You know the beast. It's the one that whispers words of discouragement and defeat. Roaring with laughter at us and our pathetic misery. Two swift maneuvers of our trusty sword, and we have defeated that form of rejection.

Rejection, I have found, after MUCH experience has nothing to do with me or whatever it is I am offering, but in the inability of the person doing the rejecting to see my Fabulousness. It's all them and not me. I have learned not to take rejection as a label of my worth. After all, why give the other person all this power to determine how worthy or talented we are? Who are they to judge? Reduce them to what they are - incidental minotaurs on our route to fulfillment. I take the helpful constructive criticism and use it as a self-help tool. I take anything unproductive out and burn it.

The Odysseus Method

This is where roadblocks and obstacles have lead us hopelessly off track until we are totally off course. There are one-eyed monsters to slay, sirens to avoid, hags to outsmart, and men to turn out of pigs. We get tired and want to give up, for the end does not seem to be anywhere in sight. We seek out to cocoon and wallow.

However.

Roadblocks are just the Universe's way of diverting our route to a better direction. Through roadblocks we discover scenery we would not have seen had we stayed on course; we experience things and events and people we would not have encountered had we not been diverted. Roadblocks are just detours which are the most primal forms of adventure and exploration. Just ask Odysseus.

The Little Train Method

This is where no matter how many odds are against us, no matter whether anyone else believes us or in us or not, no matter what the obstacles inside and out, we just blow the crap out of our own horns. We chug, chug, chug and whistle "I think I can. I think I can. I know I can!"

The fact remains, this is the one method we all rely on whether we know it or not. If we did not love what we do; if we did not believe in ourselves despite the minotaurs and the gremlins, we would lie down somewhere and whisper "give." Yet. We pick ourselves up. We dust ourselves off. We pick up our brushes, our pens, our needles, our oven mitts. We send our kids off to school and smile at our neighbors, and take out the trash. We put away the blanket and the ice cream, and take our faithful companions out for a walk.

The Genie Sea Method

Or.

"Screw you! I know my worth." and smile method.

If we can't dropkick a roadblock, we can go around it. Even the Great Wall of China has a beginning and an end to it. There really is no such thing as impossible. I knew that when I saw one of my good friends levitate off the ground when I was 18, and under no drug or alcohol influence. If you are a novelist, you will publish if that is what you truly want. If you are an artist, you will sell and display your art, if that is what you truly want.

If that is what you truly want.

Reject Rejection.

Blessed be :)