Navigating Uncertainty
A Collage Journey Through Fear, Doubt, and Failure.
When I'm creating a collage and it's not coming together, it can be tempting to cling to it. Sometimes, I keep pushing hard to make it work because I've invested a good amount of time. I get to a point where it's preventing me from exploring other options. I notice the whispers of failure seep into my thoughts. Fear and doubt are not far behind.
Pema Chödrön offers a fresh perspective. Somehow, I find that it can also relate to the process of collage-making.
Welcome the present moment as if you had invited it. It is all we ever have so we might as well work with it rather than struggling against it. We might as well make it our friend and teacher rather than our enemy.
– Pema Chödrön
Staying with the discomfort is challenging. I feel an internal resistance. It lingers especially when I’m having a bad streak for days or weeks. Pema teaches us that by acknowledging these thoughts, their energy begins to move and its power in us wanes. As I continue my collage-making while practicing this with regularity, letting go after every failed idea becomes easier. One thing’s for sure: these thoughts don’t disappear. I guarantee you, fear and doubt will always knock right on the heels of failure. Instead of shutting the door, I just let them in. As Pema suggested, I imagine them as if they were my friends commiserating with each other on a bad day. Collaging is kind of meditative in this way.
Here are some of my half-baked ideas and incomplete attempts. Just like life, they are imperfect and messy. If you’ve had a chance to see my work on Instagram, they all began with some degree of failure.
I leave you to ponder another beautiful quote from Pema.
Yet despite all our attachment, we know that the tide will inevitably come in and sweep the sand castle away. The trick is to enjoy it fully but without clinging, and when the time comes, let it dissolve back into the sea.
― Pema Chödrön
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