Embracing Uniqueness

I loved the fact that it wasn't supposed to look like something familiar

The music starts, and I feel my spirit coming alive as I grab for my paint brushes and paints.  It's another night of creativity as our art group 'the Discovery' meets in our studio.  What should I paint tonight? Having no idea or picture in my head, I begin.  That's the way I like it!  Embarking off into the unknown with my paints, not sure what is to come out of me and what lesson may even be awaiting.  I love the adventure of the journey.  I begin with a prayer as I squeeze paints out on my pallet.  A handful of musicians have gathered around and have begun to release a creative sound.  Taking my brush I  dip it in paint and it begins to make its own movements.   For anybody that knows me, you would know that I am not known to have great rhythm if any at all.   But that doesn't matter to me.   I am getting lost in the moment and creating my own rhythm with my paint.   As I paint I see so many parallels to life, and I find there is so much more then just completing a picture.   Painting and creating has become more about the journey and what I learn along the way.   So many times I don't know what the end result of my painting will look like.   I don't know where I am going with it and I can't figure out what it always is.  Kinda like life,  I don't always know what is before me and what the end of each day will look like, but you keep going.   I have found that if you keep going, even when it looks like nothing but a big mess on canvass, something beautiful does come.   The key is not to give up and get discouraged, but rather to see what it is that you can learn in that moment.   There have been many times that what I was painting seemed very ugly to me and I wanted to throw it out.   The more I focused on what I thought was ugly and a mistake, the more my mood changed and the joy of creating left me.

As the music continued I felt a joy bubbling out of me and spilling on my canvass.   It was the joy of embracing my uniqueness.   What I was painting on my canvass was completely unique and me.   It didn't have to look a certain way to be accepted.   I could feel the freedom rising up in me as I loved the fact that it wasn't supposed to look like something familiar.   As I stood back and looked at it, I loved how the lines moved all over and how there were bright colours.   It was fun to look at and something about it captured my heart.   It was simple, but really complex all at the same time.   I realized that this painting was about me and the joy that happens when we begin to embrace our uniqueness