Fear is a funny thing. No matter how often we confront them we find a new one. When the clouds clear up and the sun shines through we find another cloud to take it’s place. And that is the human condition. It is the desire to find fear and face it that makes us unique. It is our undying affection for challenge and rebirth that makes us interesting.

We shelter ourselves with umbrellas and hats and rain coats so that we cannot feel the sting of the rain, but the rain is rarely as bad as one thinks it will be. It can be unpleasant and cold and lonely, but it lets you know you are alive. Just the same with fear: when we let it touch us, when we do not run away, it has no more power. The more we ignore it or shield ourselves from it, the larger it grows, an ever-present entity in your heart. But when it is unleashed, and we feel it’s full effects, we know it for what it is. We call it by name and look it in the face. We understand what our fear has to say, and we respond in kind.

Do something that requires bravery every single day.

That was the thought I had the other day that changed everything for me. I no longer felt bound by life’s rules. I simply wanted to be brave, to do something that scared me, and to face that thing head on. When we do something that takes courage, we diminish fear. It will never leave our side completely, for if it does we know we are complacent, unchanging, and stagnant. But that cloud will grow smaller, as I have watched mine for the last few years, until it is a friend, a companion, waiting to challenge you.

Don’t let your storm cloud grow so large it changes the lives of others.  And just as importantly, don’t let it cast a shadow over your life. Take control of it. Embrace it. Learn to see the good in it. And when you do, you might find that it has moved on without unleashing the storm you were expecting. Because when we love our fears, we make room for blue sky days.

Model: Mia Hutchinson

Share here a fear that you are currently struggling with.

Share one way that you exhibited bravery in the last month.

My current fear: That my convention won’t be a success. 

Moment of bravery: Emailed new galleries to request exhibitions.

This is an idea I am in love with. Imagine how differently we would all see each other if we looked at strangers and saw bodies filled with potential. We all carry a story inside of us, a veritable rose garden of beautiful ideas that, if shared, would brighten the world.

Imagination, for so many of us, is our life blood. It is what carries us through the world, gives us strength and courage to be different, and reaffirms our choices when we are in doubt. It is what defines us, it is what makes us whole, and it is what we so badly want to share with others.

Yesterday I was thinking about these ideas, abstract as they may be, and wanted to make them more concrete. I wanted to represent them in an image. My first thought was of imagination as blood, since it feels so necessary for survival, and what the scene would look like should someone’s imagination leak out of them. But then I realized that imagination does not simply “leak”, it explodes. I had a vision of red cloth folding around my face and bursting up the wall. Then I thought about roses, and the symbolism of something in bloom, and how much a garden must be tended to in order to thrive, much like our imaginations. The combination struck a chord in me, and I went out to create.

This is my challenge to you: 

Create an image with a blank wall and a piece of fabric.

I want to see your imagination explode, theoretically. Let’s show the world what can be done with the most limited of resources and a lot of heart. 

“The Rose Garden” is a self-portrait taken February 2015 in my bedroom.