Resilience
Hummingbirds are resilient:
- can travel thousands of miles in a year
- and 500 in a single trip
- They are diurnal, sleeping at night and awake during the day, but can migrate regardless of time of day.
- Hummingbirds were created with an ability to go into a deep sleep similar to hibernation in which the metabolic rate drops as much as 95%. The lower body temp takes the bird to a hypothermic threshold that nears death. It takes them 20 minutes to an hour to wake up from this state.
- This means they can survive freezing temps.
- Their hearts beat 1,260 times a minute, so they must stay in a constant state of motion to survive
It’s that last fact that gets me.
What makes your heart beat? What is your calling? As an artist (forgive the double negative) we ‘can’t not’ make art. But sometimes, something steps in front of our paintbrush, camera, whatever we’re trying to create, and distracts us. When you have enough of those distractions, your dream goes on hold. Sometimes it’s for a few hours. Sometimes, it’s for years, until you forget what you were doing in the first place.
Mankind was created for a purpose. You have a purpose. I believe that purpose is naturally wired in us, and it is a passion we can’t help but do. But we must stay in motion. I don’t mean staying busy, pointlessly moving, but moving in some way to accomplish our purpose.
One part of my purpose is art. I have discovered that sometimes things take away from time that is slotted to do art. But a more daunting distraction is discouragement, which rears its ugly head in many ways: fear of success, fear of showing your work and that it’s not good enough, fear of rejection. Nothing can knock the wind out of us like emotional trauma. We need to be resilient when other distractions present themselves, like things which attack our hearts.
Rejection, an argument with someone, a broken heart, stress at work or home, anything emotional has the power to knock the legs out from under us. Even if it’s a slight version of any of these, trying to sit down at the drawing board and be inspired can be nearly impossible.
I, personally, like to be in a ‘happy place’ when I make art; or, at least, in a neutral mood. I find it very difficult to want to make art when I’m hurting.
My solution to staying resilient so I can go about doing my purpose (my art)? I work the stress out of my body, either at the gym or on a walk, but more important is praying and reading scripture. One of my favorites is from Psalm 37: ‘Do not fret’. So much of our heartache comes from the ‘what if’. The enemy of our souls uses that to distract us from doing what God created us to do.
I take care of my soul first. It’s more important. Inevitably, everything falls into place again inside of me, and I can continue forward motion toward my dream.
Resilience involves staying in motion, not sitting (unless you’re praying and meditating on scripture; that’s moving, too), not wallowing, but taking action to quiet those negative voices that rejected, discouraged or doubted you. They don’t matter. Lean into the love of the God of heaven, who will never do any of those things to you. Then, it’s time to take flight, and do what you were created for!
