The Leap Into Your Work Gets Easier Each Time
Ten Meter Tower, a short film by Maximilien Van Aertryck, Axel Danielson
At our monthly salon, which we called The Genius File, one of the first things we showed was this short film called Ten Meter Tower, in which the filmmaker set up a camera on a balcony across from a high dive platform at a huge indoor pool at the eye level of the jumpers. Each diver approaches the edge to evaluate the risk and negotiate with the leap. Now I see why my husband and I were so mesmerized by this. He had just gotten his stage 4 cancer diagnosis. We were fascinated watching people negotiate with the leap we will all eventually have to make.
Each person approaches the edge and evaluates the risk. There are some who look down and decide they can’t do it. They reverse their steps down, swearing under their breaths. There is a couple in which the man is unable to bear being touched by the woman who tries to soothe him. There are two friends who berate each other, until one asks the other to leave. My absolute favorite is the older woman in her eighties in a leotard. She quietly approaches the drop- off, shakes her head, steps back, turns and descends a few rungs on the ladder, and then stops. She does nothing. But you know she is considering that this may be her only and last chance. She climbs back up, walks to the very edge of the platform and closes her eyes for a minute. Instead of jumping she looks straight out ahead of her. After a pause she simply steps off into space and falls. It is spectacular.
Why the dive, and why is it daily, and why do it with others?
Because it is a leap of faith to go into our work. There’s an invisible barrier that tells us not to take the plunge, but going in daily hurts less. Ive learned this swimming in the Long Island Sound. The longer you resist plunging in, the colder the water. It is also easier to meet the strange creatures of the deep in the safety of a group, which offers a special kind of charged silence.
Here’s the Zoom Meeting link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86382041826?pwd=WlN6Z2IvaW03K1R3Y1FCR1ZiclVrdz09 Meeting ID: 863 8204 1826 Passcode: dailydive
Join us for one hour of focus during the chaos of the day. We are practicing serious self-compassion by showing up even on dark days. We meet on Zoom at 1:00 pm, EST. We leave our cameras on so it feels less lonely. We wrap up at 2:00. Those who are onto something just continue writing. Those who want to check in can chat.
Think of Writers Daily Dive as a safe landing place. We keep it a little loose. It doesn’t have to be stressful. You could use it as a silent place to think or meditate. But if you do want to write, you can use these images as prompts. I love writing from images. It gives me a structure. Write only what I can see. It's a great exercise for those of us who get lost in out heady thoughts - to stay in the image at all costs.
Please also read : A Suitable Vessel. This is where you can read installments from Ghost Chapters From The Green Books, about life in the aftermath of my husband’s death in 2020.
Also on offer is a running writers group that has been meeting in East Hampton for 9 years! We now meet on Zoom. It’s called the Writers Collective Out East. We write in-group for 10 minutes, and then give feedback to members on their submitted pieces of writing. We meet every Wednesday at 6:30 PM EST.