art
The act of creating (whether it be through writing, music, dance, art, or another media) is an act of faith. It’s an act of faith that, through the vulnerability of expressing our innermost emotions, we can grow. It is the hope within all of it that we may bless another person who may be experiencing similar emotions.
So, what do you do when you try to create beauty within this world and it doesn’t go according to your plans? You learn to view the art through a different lens and it helps you see things much clearer.
Last week, I was certain that I could follow simple YouTube videos and make a few simple frames. I was careful and took notes, measured over and over and over again, I followed all safety precautions, stained the frames and let them cure...but somewhere down the line, the pretty frames didn’t measure up quite right.
Years ago, I would’ve fallen into one of two camps: either self-talk myself into feeling like a failure or giving up altogether. My expectations would plant themselves in the sandpit of dashed hopes and despaired dreams. None of those choices are helpful for me or other people around me.
Sometimes, in life’s hardest moments, we have to open all of our senses and read the room. We must open our hands and release the things we want in order to accept what we genuinely need. The human heart, the electrical ticking creature that it is, clutches to habit. Without stepping back and viewing seeing the full picture, our habits can become a weight.
When I felt myself tensing up this morning over the beautiful (yet unusable) frames, it helped to remind myself of the progress that grew within that seeming “failure”. I learned I like power tools and they aren’t that scary to learn to use. I learned that using the resources you have is often just what is needed. I learned to laugh at myself covered with stain(it seems wearing disposable gloves is actually a great idea). I learned that mixing paint is a lot like life-you aren’t guaranteed of the outcome, but it can still make beautiful colors that you can work with.
In creating, we are given the gift of learning more about ourselves. We are able to lean into the expression of our passions and watch them physically surface. At times, it can bubble out and be a beautiful tangible work. Other times, it magnifies the areas we are walking in or working through. In either case, the Divine weaver can thread hope into our life path, even when that path looks so different than you originally imagined.
