Swallowing Snakes

27 Marbles  
Act on inner guidance, and give up your need for “proof” that your inner guidance is authentic.  The more you ask for proof, the less likely you are to receive any.
Caroline Myss 
You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?"
George Bernard Shaw  

    Again in class today, my prof reiterated the importance of “pedigree” - the long list of writing credits a writer needs to establish credibility in the TV and Film Biz. She made it sound like when “omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.”(Yeah, that'd be Shakespeare.)
     There’s something about the word pedigree that just rubs me the wrong way.  Not only does it make us sound like a bunch of dogs, it sounds so elitist.  I’m pretty sure that the American market is much more open to the idea of something really good coming out of left field.  After all, that’s part of the American dream - with hard work and a dose of smarts and creativity, success is possible.  Maybe part of the problem is that I’m not wanting the Canadian dream - I’m wanting the American dream. 
    So rather than getting overwhelmed with the impossibility of my goals, today I remember my mantra that helps me get back to the basics of what’s needed to get my show on the air - “It just has to get into the right hands.”  It’s as simple as that.  I need to do the work to get it to a point that it is ready to be pitched and when it’s ready, it just has to get into the right hands.  There are producers, broadcasters, cast, and crew that would love to work on a steamy drama, I just have to find the next right set of hands to start the ball rolling. 
    Whenever I get in a situation where I’m told that I’m playing the lotto odds, I come back to the basics and repeat,”It just has to get into the right hands.”  The only thing I ask for is guidance and clarity so I’m able to recognize those hands.  So think me a fool for having such hope.  It doesn’t bother me.  I’ll never have the regret of not following my dreams.  I’ll never have the feeling that I’ve lived someone else’s life. 
             In John Kehoe’s book, Mind Power into the 21st Century, he relays a Zen parable of a foolish peasant who went to his master’s house.  At the house, the peasant was offered some soup but before he drank it, he noticed a snake floating on the surface of the soup.  He decided to drink the soup anyway to avoid being impolite.  The next day he became sick and went back to his master’s house.  This time he was offered medicine in a bowl but when he noticed another snake he said, “There was a snake in my soup yesterday and that’s what made me sick in the first place.”  The master roared with laughter and pointed to a bow that was hanging from the ceiling.  The master said, “There is no snake - you’re only seeing the reflection from the bow.”  The peasant left the master’s house without drinking the medicine but regained his health that same day.  As John Kehoe writes, “When we accept limitations about ourselves and our world we have swallowed imaginary mental snakes.  And they are always real…until we find out otherwise.”

What snakes are you swallowing? What limitations about yourself have you accepted? What limitations are you willing to let go?