I am in a few WhatsApp groups where there are people I don’t know, or have never met. On one such group of talented people, there is this wonderful lady who posted a picture of her paintings, in oils and watercolors. They were very beautiful, indeed – and I commented once saying ‘you make me feel like picking up my brush!’ to which she replied, ‘what’s stopping you?’ with a lovely smile (to be more precise, a smiley emoticon). And the words somehow stuck in my mind. As I went on with my day’s work, I asked myself, ‘what’s stopping you?’ But I still didn’t pick up that brush…
The paints have gone dry!
I don’t have the canvas to paint!
These were some of the excuses. I then decided to overcome these excuses. I went out and bought the canvas and some fresh paints. Brushes, I already had – collecting dust over the years of neglect. And then some more days passed. Still, no paintings! What’s stopping you?!!
Oh, let me finish this work I am doing right now!
I haven’t cooked yet!!
I’m not in the mood right now.
I have to go out in some time.
This went on till there was another beautiful painting by the same lady that inspired me. ‘So, what’s stopping you now?’ I asked myself. And I set out to paint. It is not a great masterpiece, but I have overcome something that has been stopping me… at least for a while, till the next bout of inertia attacks me, and I ask myself ‘so, what’s stopping me now?’
And what is stopping you from chasing your dreams?
Trance Series 