Leap day—Mary Walsh up on the podcast

Just want to soak up some good feelings for a minute here.

Perhaps you know the feeling: You have an idea, one that keeps nagging at you—an itch that won’t go away.

You don’t quite know what to do about it but you know you need to scratch it.

So you find a collaborator, because research shows that hills appear much less steep and daunting when we don’t have to climb them alone.

You try stuff. Throw spaghetti at the wall, make something, realize it’s not right, go back and try again. You most definitely question whether what you’re doing is any good, then try to shut that voice up by reminding yourself that you have as much right as anyone else to at least keep trying. You gobble up any ‘you-go-girl’ encouragements like candy, feeling the sweet hit of faith they offer.

More than once you feel the abject fear that you’ve made a terrible mistake, that you don’t actually know enough to figure this out. Again, you play the head game of keeping that voice quiet. Author Steven Pressfield calls that voice the Resistance. As Pressfield writes in The War of Art, “The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.”

So you continue to do battle with that internal force that tries to stop us from doing the work we’re meant to do, even though it gets louder and stronger the closer you get to doing the thing.

Then one day you realize that your hard work and determination have slain the Resistance beast (for now) and you just… leap. Into the unknown, trusting that if it fails it was all worth it because you learned and you grew and you tried and you loved how that felt.

That’s today. My wonderful producer Carla Turner and I pulled the trigger on releasing the podcast we’ve been working on.

She usually hides off-camera and off-mic, but Carla Turner is a huge part of this love affair!

I know, this is a lot of drama for a little podcast.

But I tend to put my heart into things. And it’s actually more than a podcast for me, it’s an offering of who I am and what I do, without the buttress of a public broadcaster, without the security of an existing audience, without any certainty that anyone else will care.

For you it might be a poem you write, a letter you send, a business you launch, a speech you give, a painting you share, an outfit you show the world—any hopeful idea that began as a seed deserves to be gazed at and appreciated when it has grown into a fragrant bloom.

What leap into the unknown are you considering? What stage of growth is your seed at?

Let there be good feelings and appreciation of the moment you’re in, whatever stage of the project you’re at.

Would love to hear about your flight plans! Please share in the comments, anytime.

In the meantime, this is me raising a glass to courage. To flying leaps in new directions.

Thanks for reading. And maybe for listening;)

Gill

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A Love Affair with the Unknown podcast, Episode One is live!

So grateful to the great dame of Canadian comedy and courage, Mary Walsh, for being so open, so thoughtful, and (obviously!) so funny in this week’s episode.

Mary is nominated for two Canadian Screen Awards this year: Best Performance in a Supporting Role, and Best Lead Performer In A Comedy. You can catch Mary later this year on the upcoming MGM series The Institute, based on the Stephen King novel.

Enjoy!