Daily Prompt: Art is Swimming in a Blue Hole

Took an evening swim last Monday night in the blue hole while visiting a friend in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. The blue hole’s water stays a constant 64 degrees. For comparison, the average swimming pool is 80 degrees. To have a happy blue hole swim, the trick is to jump in, start moving, and get out within a half hour. Stay in any longer and you become so chilled it’s hard to warm up. 

Use the same strategy for a creative endeavor: Scan to make sure you’re not going to bang yourself on a rock ledge, close your eyes, jump! Paddle, float, tread water. Exit before you overdo it. You can always take another dip another time.

You will be successful. Why? You will have accomplished having an experience. Accomplish derives from Latin for “to complete,” “experience” “to try.” Try something and you’ll already, in a sense, have accomplished it. 

Prompt: What have you been pondering? Starting a poem? Writing a letter? Making a journal entry? Sketching a flower? Building a shelf? Jump in. After a half hour, stop. Towel off and go on about your other business.