It wasn't so long ago that I discovered I had the potential to be an artist. Certainly not in the realm of Shakespeare or Monet or Michelangelo, or even modern artists like Spielberg or Webber. I can't string together a bunch of letters and words and make them into poetry, or take clay to sculpt a human form. I'm nowhere near brushing strokes onto blank canvas and invoking emotion from their color, or bringing something out in people they didn't realize they had. I do know, however, that I have something that they also possessed: desire and heart, passion and potential. I'm just not sure what to do with it.
But isn't that what art is? Taking something ordinary and turning it into something extraordinary? Is it possible to do that with a life? Can you begin with an average mom of 4 kids, a bad credit score and no college degree and spin it into something amazing? Can you have a broken dishwasher, unanswered emails, a cheap bottle of wine and make it beautiful?
Which begs the question: what does beautiful look like? Is it a big house, a handsome husband, a career and a financial portfolio? Is it possible that there is beauty and creativity in the average? Those moments in which you take a deep breath and heave a heavy sigh of contentment - are those beautiful? I believe they are - or rather, they have the potential to be. I believe also that as children of The Creator, we're obligated to find it. He didn't call us to live average lives, but rather to have abundant lives. I know it's difficult when we're stuck in the middle of piled-up bills, stacked-up laundry and heaped-up baggage to fine the uniqueness that God created us with, but it's there. After all, He put it there for His glory.
I'm on a quest the find the beauty in the mundane and the creativity in the average. I'll let you know what I come across.
2 comments:
Oh hun, you are an artist! The way you're able to weave words together is amazing. I only wish I wrote half as beautiful as you do...maybe then I'd update my blog more often. All I say is that there are wanabe's and then there's the real thing. You're the real thing...like C.S. Lewis real! I'm so proud of you, it sounds as if finally deciding to to quit working has done you good - at least mentaly.
You are touching upon something that my parents always tried to emphasize to us kids - find something you love, and make it your art. It doesn't have to be piano, or choir, or writing - although it can be any of those things, if that's what you love. But they really tried to teach me and my siblings the value of investing ourselves in something we truly love. There's a lot of satisfaction in the results, or so I'm told. Sometimes I'm pretty sure I'm still looking for my art too.
"Can you have a broken dishwasher, unanswered emails, a cheap bottle of wine and make it beautiful?"
Uh, you're describing my life, sister.
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