The birth of Wild Free and Creating.
At what stage of life should you pursue a dream? When we are young we are told to wait until we are older. We believe it will be easier then because we will have the time, money and experience to go for it. When we become older however, we may have one or two of the desired recommendations if we are lucky. We also have a list of reasons built by that point to keep us from pursuing our dreams regardless or met conditions. We have too many responsibilities, our money is spread too thin between all of our possessions and relations, or we are tired or too out of shape to pursue our dreams. The list goes on. If you constantly prepare yourself to take the jump you never actually get to the jumping part.
Lauren learned this at a very young age. As a child she wanted to go hiking to explore the mountains near her home. Her friends all said they would go when they were older and could drive or someone could take them. Lauren wanted to explore so bad she decided to just walk to the mountains. The walk took around an hour but was worth it. From that point on the mountains became her second home. When she was old enough to drive she planned many fun road trips with her friends. But all their plans just stayed in the planning phase. Tired of waiting she jumped on her motorcycle and just started driving. Thousands of miles later she still had no end destination because it was the adventure that mattered. She realized that if she spent time waiting for people to do things with her or for circumstances to line up just right, she would spend the rest of her life waiting. This thought scared her more than taking the leap to just go for it, even when she felt unprepared. Nothing was worth justifying putting off living until a later date. Essentially, experiencing life usually involves taking a big leap of faith.
From that point on Lauren embraced the part of her life in which she pursued her dreams. If something felt right and she could figure out how to make it work she did. She traveled, backpacked, and sought education and martial arts. Her love of art ebbed and flowed and was always a constant. Over time the embers of desire to pursue art built into a raging fire within her. Its light blinded out all else and its heat burned a passion into Lauren’s life. All other loves stood side to take their turn on the backburner and it became time to pursue art above all else.
When Laurens internal compass lined up with her passion the whole universe converged to give her wings. Lauren started doing commission paintings. Friends and family who saw the paintings then reached out to request their own commissions and the word spread. Within two years Lauren was shipping paintings across America to people she had never met. When the demand for her work became so high it was hard to make enough time to fulfill the commissions, Lauren decided to pursue her art full time. Even though she could not guarantee her success or end goal she decided to try. A leap of faith cannot always be made without blind trust. Lauren was raised to trust the higher truth or divine order to all things. If it worked she would have the opportunity to touch the lives of many through her art. If it didn’t work she would have the opportunity to touch the lives of many through her travels and whatever job she picked up. Either way she found joy.
After a year of pursuing her art career full time she decided it was time to make it internet official. The website was born. Life is like a stream with currents and ebbs, constantly moving. It’s a lot more difficult if you fight it. It’s hard to know where the rivers of life intend for us to settle. Or if they will ever slow down. Living is a lot easier when you find a current that makes you happy and hold on to your raft. Pursuing her art feels a lot like floating down a river with a blindfold on and no paddle but Lauren knows its the river she needs to be on. Lauren does not believe that the universe is a cold and neutral place out to trample the lives of hopeless dreamers. She believes it is a playground set up for our greatest opportunity for growth and development. When you learn to enjoy the journey you begin to see how it’s been designed for you. What if we learned to treat life as if life itself were laid out by US before we ever met our bodies? Why would we ever set up our path to destroy the creator? Every challenge then becomes an opportunity. Every obstacle a prod in the right direction. Pain becomes the best tool to guide us away from what is no longer serving us. Joy and passion are the fires that guide our way. What if we learned to live like life is something that is happening FOR us, instead of something that is happening TO us?