As some of you may already know, I recently attended the World Federaton of the Deaf (WFD) conference, in Durban. The focus was on a global renaissance for the Deaf, and by the Deaf. It was incredibly interesting from an academic point of view, but also from a cultural point of view!!
Being at the conference .. in a controlled environment, although strange and new, was pretty manageable.. but although I was having a good time, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was missing out on something… something more authentically Deaf… so I started to pull away a little from the hearing delegates, and focus on the Deaf ones… pretty soon, I noticed my Signing starting to change.. I noticed that I was being invited to Deaf events in the week, and before I knew it, I was in a Deaf pub, fully immersed in a culture and array of languages that I had never experienced before!!
To be completely honest, that first night, when I was standing in a strange place, with people I didn’t know, I felt pretty intimidated… but something kind of snapped in me that night.. as I started to chat to people, I started to realise that i actually COULD!! that our languages really weren’t that different, that I had things in common with people from Mongolia, Tibet, Australia, America, New Zealand, AND Durban…(there were more countries involved, but I think you get the point!! ) !!
Well, as I tried to fall asleep (at 4:30am!!) I tried to figure out what had just happened to me.. and although I really couldn’t figure it out just yet, it occured to me over the next few days… and this is why I’m telling you about it…. are you ready????
STRETCHING MY COMFORT ZONES MADE ME MORE CREATIVE!!!!!! Seriously!!! After a few days of immersing myself in something completely different, I suddenly found that I was more confident.. more.. at ease in my skin.. and bubbling over with IDEAS for … just about … EVERYTHING!!!! I guess the global rennaissance really had happened.. but for me it was globally inside of me!! I’m still trying to figure out all the things that shifted in me that week, but I can tell you that having been stretched has given me a new lease on my creative spirit….
so…..
here’s a challenge for you!!!!
DO something… today, or tomorrow, or this week sometime….. to STRETCH YOUR COMFORT ZONE!!! see if you feel the rennaissance happening inside of you.. and tell us about it!!!! 
))
Thanks for your true words.. Your so right! Too often we are so comfortable (or use to rather) our comfort zones, being afraid to venture into the ‘unknown’ and try any thing new. It is like we live life with blinkers on. But once we are able to see past this and to really open our eyes and look around, our whole perspective of the world changes. Its hard to break the mould that we have conditioned our selfs to, but once we are ablt to, you realise how small we really are and how our tiny contribution fits into the big, BIG picture.