The Red Bicycle

What's up with the red bicycle on my Contact Form? That's my business card, of course.

I chose the symbol for several different reasons, one being that the very first picture I truly spent time painting a few years back featured a red bicycle. Maybe I'll get brave enough one day to post a picture of that painting. It's not exactly my best work you know.

Which means that I'll have to post it for you, so you'll see how much I've grown. Did you think I started out knowing how to paint? Or write? You have no idea how bad I was.

How many crappy first drafts have you written of stories or novels that you are afraid to show to let others read and criticize because you cannot stand that process? How many art projects have you started that are getting dusty on a shelf somewhere because they aren't perfect?

We all have to start somewhere. No artist, writer, or healer gets it perfect the first time. In fact, I cannot tell you how many bad pictures I've painted over, how many times I rewrote my novel, and did you know that Simon and Schuster rejected the first draft of Stupid About Men that I wrote and made me write it over from scratch--on an eight week deadline! Now that is pressure for sure...

It takes courage to heal, courage to grow a smart, creative life. You have to do something about your situation, not simply sit around and moan about it. You must expect to fail, be criticized, and get rejected. It's just part of the process. In fact, you cannot just accept it.

You must embrace it. Failure is how when learn, and when we learn, we change and grow. Failure is how we get to perfection in the long run.

Red is the color that symbolizes passion and courage. A bicycle takes us somewhere we want to go. My red bicycle is a symbol of my passion, the need to have courage, and the freedom I need to go places, do things, and see things that I want to see. I imagine riding it, the wind in my hair, the sun shining on my back. I smell the salt air and the beach, a place where I go to regenerate my weary soul.

But it must be peddled, and the more I peddle the more I build my muscles, the healthier I become. Happier too.

A red bicycle.

So now you know.