I’m on a high. I’ve been on it since the pre-gig adrenalin kicked in a few hours before last Thursday evening’s Meet the Poet: Elaine Cusack event at Whitley Bay Library. I’d been looking forward to the gig. I felt supported by North Tyneside Libraries and knew their promotion of the event would ensure a healthy-sized audience.
I took the advice of my friend Ron and followed the Six Pees Rule (Proper Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance). I was prepared for the event and thoroughly enjoyed reading old and new poems plus extracts from my latest and forthcoming books.
After the show I was inundated with congratulations from audience members. Since then I’ve read lovely comments on Facebook and via email from attendees. I’m delighted that so many people “get me. ” It’s life-affirming to feel listened to, appreciated and understood as a person and a writer.
Over the years I’ve had insults thrown at me by folks who felt insecure around me and jealous of my gifts. They haven’t stopped me from writing and performing but I’ve been guilty of silencing myself in response to their behaviour. I hid my talents to keep them safe.
Perhaps you’ve done the same with your artistic flair or sporting ability? Isn’t it time you let your talents speak for themselves?
I have the following quote from Dorothy Rowe’s The Successful Self handwritten on a piece of paper and Blu Tac-ed to the wall in front of this ol’ PC of mine. It’s just above eye level and I see it every time I sit down or stand up.
“Trusting yourself is an essential part of creativity. You must still your criticizing conscience and let the process flow. The flow is spontaneous but not uninhibited. There is channelling, but channelling by wisdom and experience, not by inhibition and negativity. There is a sense of the rightness of things, and the creative process comes, burgeons, and closes with the sense of roundness and completion, yet, until the whole enterprise is complete, there is a link, an opening to the next stage in the creative process.” Dorothy Rowe The Successful Self.