absorb

as i wandered through blue moon winter ale and decaf cinnamon cafe au lait, i realized that manhattan has become a place of restful enjoyment. not just in beverage. or surroundings. or company. rather, it's like picking up that lopsided water pitcher you formed and filling it with the coldest sweet tea, refreshing on the hottest days. it's realizing that the time spent to bring forth this space, this place of a certain self and its actualization, was utterly worth it. and behind my own grasping hands were the hands of someone much more skilled than me. so now that i am looking back at that pitcher, i see not the cracks or wobbly handle, but a vessel of unique beauty and function. and it makes me so thankful i got to walk through that. all the hell and wonder, the waiting and receiving, the giving and taking.

it gives me hope as i am fashioning this part of my life. i don't know what i am making or really what each move might make in the end, but i have learned to appreciate the process. and trust that no matter what the final product is, it is lovely and not without specific purpose. there is great artistic freedom in this realization.

maybe you don't think you are an artist. you don't paint or play an instrument or dance en pointe. but trust me when i say, that you are an artist...the image of the Artist is graven in your very DNA. do it. say "i am an artist". and then figure out some way to do that...be it pencil sketches, scrapbooks, piano arpeggios or african dance. or organizing desk drawers. or creating starburst wrapper chains. create! put that energy into something creative. it doesn't matter if it's overtly attractive or "looks like art". just put something of yourself into an express form. and walk in the joy of knowing you have the privilege to create.

"how can you be so calm when the truth is sometimes we live in the eye of the storm?" [jack johnson, 'same girl']