A newly released film is like a satellite. It might transmit or not. I’m on the ground and have to find something else to do. – Keith Maitland
To publish anything, be it a piece of writing or a film, is to release it. It’s like launching a satellite into space. I have no idea if it will maintain its orbit. I don’t know if it will transmit any information. I can’t predict if anyone will notice a new, bright light streaming across the night sky.
None of those things are my concern. I’m not to worry about the outcome of the writing. I’m to write and publish, write and publish. I let the work go, trusting that the words will reach whomever they need to reach. They might not reach anyone, and that’s all right. The words written on one piece might not be the right ones. The next words could be, but they’ll never be written if I don’t launch the first satellite.
I let the writing go. I do all I can to ensure its trajectory, but, after I’ve done all I can, I release it. Releasing it frees it to do and become, not the holding onto it. It’s the releasing, too, that allows me to do more and become the woman I was created to be.
Letting my work go is a necessary surrender. The longer I hold onto it, the more I become enslaved to it. I worry about setting its launch pad in perfect order. I’m distracted by the launch process rather than the process of creating more satellites. I endlessly tinker with the launch and gain nothing but cogs and wheels strewn across the concrete.
When it comes to my writing and art, the only thing I’m responsible for is exercising my gifts. I entrust the outcome of that exercise to the One who gave me those gifts. He doesn’t ask me to accompany my work into space. He asks that I launch it and entrust it to Him. He then directs my attention back to the ground and reminds me that my hands are empty again. It’s time to refill them, to “find something else to do” so that I can launch another satellite into space.
Have you heard about my Kickstarter for Write Right’s Emergency Hope Kit? Visit the project and pledge your support.
Image: Nogwater (Creative Commons)