FRIENDS WITH THE MONSTER:
THE TIME HAS COME FOR YOU TO LIVE YOUR ART

Article By Nikka Karli
Photo Credit: Dasha & Mari
Magazine: Issue #30

There you are. Sitting alone in your room. The scariest monster you’ve ever encountered is under your bed, gnashing its hideous teeth and sliding its creepy alien fingers along your bare skin.

But this monster- the one who has you plugging your ears and squeezing your eyes shut so tightly you’re seeing stars- is not, in reality, a monster at all.

This monster is your Ultimate Dream.

And you are so scared by the very IDEA of said dream that you are, at present, curled up into the fetal position sucking your thumb and crying for your mommy. Just wishing someone would come and take your Ultimate Dream away so you don’t have to think about it for more bed-wetting second.

Except- EXCEPT- you know in your heart of hearts that if you actually lost this dream that you might completely fade away from all space and time.

And you know that no matter how scary this dream is, it is your reason for being on this planet, at this time, in this place.

For without this dream your soul would be incomplete. And your life would become a vast wasteland of mediocrity. And carpooling minivans. And boring lingerie that doesn’t even turn YOU on. And ugly Christmas sweater parties where you get to feign laughter at your husband’s boss’s ridiculously inappropriate jokes. And one craptastic vacation every other year. Oh. And, perhaps worst of all, watching other people build their dreams while you sit back and try to remember a time when you yourself had more than just a fleeting memory of your own.

And that version of life? Well, I don’t know about you, but that hot mess of a reality is simply unacceptable to me.

So, what’s a rebel-thought leader-dreamer-creator-world changer to do?
Roll over, play dead, and let the monster have its way with you?
Well. Yes, actually. That’s EXACTLY what you should do.

Because it is only by surrendering completely to your Ultimate Dream that you will ever give it permission to become your reality. It is only when we give ourselves over to the great, big, scary void of creativity that we are capable of not only making friends with the monster, but BECOMING the monster.

What does it mean to become the monster {AKA your Ultimate Dream}?

It means that your life is no longer an unsatisfying accumulation of the mundane tasks and self-limiting comfort zones with which we occupy ourselves to distract us from the fact that we are not living our art.

It means that your name will be forever written along the magical ley lines of the Soul of the Universe.

It means that you- yes you- will have faced your demons, nourished them with love and gratitude, and chosen to embrace them in spite of your fears. You will have not only accepted your monster, you will have become the walking, talking, breathing embodiment of your divinity. For our creativity- which is the active invocation of our Ultimate Dream- is, in all essence, divine.

It is the vast expanse of the ancient ones that runs through our blood.
It is our strength and our weakness. Our light and our dark. Our truth and our faults.
It is our greatness.

We must never forget that when we fight our monster, we are fighting ourselves. And nothing great has ever come from an artist fighting her art. From a leader fighting the fact that they are meant to lead. Or from a creator refusing to create.

So, this is your invitation to surrender, Lover. To give yourself over to your own monster. To allow your life to become the sacred magic that is your Ultimate Dream.

This is your wake up call. Your monster is waiting.

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