Our lives are full of dreamers and doers, but what separates the two?
What keeps us moving forward towards our dreams? What causes our hopes and ideas to root so deeply that aren’t destroyed by comparison, discouragement, apathy, and busyness?
I asked Taren Maroun of Wildfolk + Co. to share about her experiences in merging her passion into a lifestyle.
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Hey guys, My name is Taren. I’m a visual artist currently based in LA California. When Sabrina asked if I would be interested in writing a little something my initial reaction was, OF COURSE! (one because I love that woman, and two because I love to share) As it goes, though, the more I thought about it the more I questioned what I wanted to write about.
So here I am. 5:02 on a Thursday afternoon, smelting in my apartment, wondering what on earth I have inside me that I feel is for you.
I guess a good place for me to start would be what is most important to me. I believe Howard Thurman said it best:
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
Art for me is a vehicle to getting to the important parts of people (and expressing those parts for myself). The places where we hurt, where we hide, where we dream and breathe. Those places inside of us that tell us we can do it, we can make it and we can be it. I really believe that regardless of how you feel about it and yourself, that place is alive in all of us. Perhaps it’s been shut down and locked away for a time, but it’s there, and it needs to be explored.
I also believe that getting to that place, or beginning the process of restoration and revitalization is at it’s roots simple: one step at a time. I’m not saying the journey will be easy, because it’s not, I can promise you that, but if you are brave enough to put one foot in front of the next you have already made it beyond most, and that much closer to your authentic self.
So let’s talk about that for a second. What does it look like to put one foot in front of the other? to take one step toward your dreams? To be true to your emotions and experiences? I think it’s as simple as writing one sentence a day, which turns into two which turns into a paragraph which turns into a page and eventually that book you’ve been meaning to write. Or taking one picture a day, whether that’s on your cellphone or your handheld or your DSLR. Or whether that’s saying thank you to someone in your quest to be more grateful, or holding the door in your pursuit of chivalry. Whatever it is you are fully capable, and it only takes one step.
The other side of the coin is just as important. As you are taking those steps, and becoming your true self, you in turn allow others to be that for themselves as well. Your authentic nature calls to theirs. It’s a beautiful cycle, one that abolishes the current patterns of false nature, shallow depth, complacency and mediocrity.
So I guess in the grand scheme of things, I’m writing this not just as an encouragement but to pose a question: will you come alive? will you take one step today to get closer to that fully alive, fully authentic you?
Because, spoiler alert, it’s not just for you. It’s also for us. We need you to operate from those places. Our world needs people who are fully alive.
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Visit Wildfolk + Co. for some stellar and sincerely inspiring beauty
that will help you jump up and create/explore your own .
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