3. Building Rome
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Overview:
Do you have a big creative vision that you want to bring to life? Do you think that achievement will finally prove that you are "somebody" or that you're finally "worthy"? Not so fast. Bringing that vison to life will be challenging and require effort, but you're never compensating for worth. Learn a better way to go about builidng your big dream.
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[EXPLICIT]
Hey creatives, I’m C. Jordan Blaquera, and welcome to the Whispering Worth to the World Podcast.
I’m a Master-Certified Life and Artist Coach who specializes in working with creatives. This is where I share what I would tell my younger self, if I could, what I’ve learned about the art of being human, about our inherent divine equality, and how it all relates to navigating our creative expression in the world.
BUILDING ROME
Do you want to build your Rome?
Your album. Your series of paintings. Your artistic voice. Your own singular style. Your book. Your trilogy. Your movie. Your career. Your signature sound. Your world tour. Your symphony. Your masterpiece. Whatever that is for you.
What is your Rome? And what will it mean to you when your Rome is built? Will it mean that you’ve made it? You’ve won. You’re a success. You proved them wrong. You proved them right. You rubbed it in their eye. You made them regret what they said about you. You made them see how much better you are.
Will you make it mean…they’ll finally be proud of you so that you can finally be proud of yourself. Because that’s what you want. Isn’t that what we really want?
Will you make it mean…You did it. You slayed it. You climbed the mountain and got to the top. You climbed the ladder. You’re finally a success. A winner after all this time!
Will your Rome finally be undisputed proof that…you matter. That you’re someone. You’re on the top of the pedestal. And this Rome you built was enough to prove that finally you’re enough, and there’s nothing wrong with you. You have earned your right to be. You have fixed everything you thought was broken about you.
Remember what Rumi said, “Beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field.”
And in that field, my friend, You. Are. Sufficient. As you are. We all are sufficient as we are in any given moment.
At the deepest level…there are no true deficiencies at that deepest level. There is nothing you need to do to compensate for a perceived deficiency, inadequacy or inferiority.
And guess what, you – the essential you, the greater part of you, that eternal part of you resides in the field. I believe it is the field. It cannot be anywhere but the field. We cannot be anywhere but the field.
What if you could never be far afield. There is not actually any place that is not the field.
It’s only an idea you have that there is anything to compensate for, that you could ever be less than right where you stand now. Ever. Can you go beyond ideas of falling short and needing to compensate for those shortcomings?
So if you want to create your Rome, go to the field first. Or better yet, realize you’re there right now. Remember that you are the field and you are in the field, both/and.
Because….Rome was not built in a day, and there is no guarantee that if you can see it in your mind, if you want to build it, if you start to build it, if you enlist a team of people to help you build your Rome, there are no guarantees how long it will take to build that Rome, no guarantees that you will ever see it actually come to fruition.
There is basically a long road of toiling day after day, working on it, shepherding yourself through the thousands of choices and hours and days of heartaches and disappointments, and yes, the Moments -- all the basic mundane work along the way.
How will you manage that long creative path you’ll be walking as your Rome gets built?
When you build it as you are in the field or as you built it from the field, where there are no inadequacies, you are building it because it’s fun, because there is something you want to create or make or express. Because you say so. Because you want to. Because it’s exciting, challenging, drawing you forward each step of the way. Because you’re devoted to this Rome you’re building, to this city of the mind, to the manifestation of this architectural feat you see in your inner vision, this thriving city.
When you are in the field, when you be as the field, you are not lacking and insufficient and building your Rome so you can compensate for your shortcomings. No! You are full in the field and choosing to create your Rome because that which created you dropped the inspiration, that idea for your Rome, into you -- not just any Rome, your Rome -- into your consciousness, and you caught sight of it. And, oh, what a sight it was, or what a sound if you’re a musician, or what a picture if you’re a choreographer or filmmaker or any kind of image-maker.
Building Rome takes work, an epic amount of work. So let’s do it from the field. Beyond all ideas of wrong and right, or failure and success, or inadequacy and adequacy, inferiority and superiority, which are all just ideas and figments of shortcomings, and trying to compensate for them. Just ideas. Not solid. Not set in stone.
And if the Rome you’re building or that you want to build is going to prove finally that you matter,
that means you don’t matter right now while you are trying to build that Rome. And that is a hard way to create. That is a hard way to live. That is suffering.
As the Buddhists say, “You are entitled to your labor, but not the fruits of your labor.”
And if you are trying to compensate for that which you cannot compensate for – ever! -- because you are in the field, you are the field – out beyond ideas of falling short and needing to compensate for it by building your Rome, you will be infuriatingly, devastatingly hobbled being secretly, or not so secretly, desperate for the fruits of your labor.
Ask me how I know.
So, I don’t care what your Rome is. I’ve got my own Rome to build. But you might care about your Rome. And if you do, if that idea was dropped into you for your Rome, please first claim the field that you exist in always….Yes, I said, first. Meet yourself in the field. And then create your ass off.
Plan the city, the aqueducts, Build the roads, construct the coliseum, plan your marvel, this spectacular Rome that you are building.
Toil, and work and labor, experiencing all those setbacks that just might be holding within them gateways to transcendence, to claiming your place in the field, if you haven’t done so already.
Feel the heartache of disappointment when something doesn’t meet your expectations along this creative journey, but do it from the field where you are shimmering in golden light beyond all the insane notions humans have ever created like wrongdoing and rightdoing, like inferiority and superiority.
if you are creating your Rome from the field, the existential, essential field that we are in but might not have yet claimed, you will have the best chance of not only creating your Rome, but enjoying the process, and being able to actually enjoy the achievement once it’s built.
Who among us have not built something and then been sadly disappointed at the end when it didn’t meet our expectations?
So when we are in the field, each of us creating our own Romes, we can meet what is asked of us.
Rome was not built in a day. And your Rome or my Rome will not be built in a day. So, we need sustenance.
We’ll need…
Patience.
Energy.
Action.
Application.
Vision.
Persistence.
Conviction.
Resilience.
Get knocked down. Get back up. Get knocked down. Get back up again.
We will need resilience. And determination.
The requirements of the journey might be nothing short of epic.
But we can handle epic when we meet it in the field.
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