Sometimes, often in fact… I wonder about what can possibly make this life alright. I have friends whose bodies are literally decaying (to the point that they are crippled), family who are hurting desperately for a place to live with their four children, and some who are overwhelmed with the darkness of depression in spite of a lovely life every day. Three days ago I wanted to curl into a ball because I had feasted on despair. All I could think about was the sadness of those I love and my inability to be God in order to help them. Where does clear thinking come from?
SO… I listened to Chuck Close one more time:
“The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case.”
Chuck Close
Inspiration will not just come to you! We always have to move. Therefore, I chose to move in spite of my paralysis and this day the movement saved me. I WILLFULLY CHOSE TO DO SOMETHING. Maybe moving, making movement, can help you too?
Though I didn’t feel like being around anyone, I went to the Art Factory, here:
I mooned and “gloomed” around my dear friend, Maggie, an artist selling her wares. She was so kind, so gentle. I just could not wrap my thinking around the hurt of those around me. Maybe I was inundated with a bit of survivors guilt because I live in my beautiful home with my good health surrounded by all that is floral. Could words from anyone help me or anyone? This time, my Bible needed to come from a voice; it was Maggie’s, “Embrace the pain. Know that the Goodness of God will be there for helping them to figure it out.” Her words helped! As they soaked into my parched dry heart, I began to believe them resulting in the warming of my heart toward God, myself, and this often broken life.
We can share hope with one another, thereby, words bring thoughts that can truly help. How can we help others today? What word can we share with someone that will help them think healthier thoughts? What do we need to think willfully today so that we feel well in our soul? There is so much at stake, so we must willfully choose to think WELL. And choose the clarity, rather than the murky.
Remember that the links will take you to places that have good thinking options.
Mind over things that matter 