In art appreciation at school, our teacher was fond of telling us that Vincent van Gogh said he would dream his paintings and then paint his dream.
I could never paint worth a lick, but I was a pretty good dreamer, so I used to imagine having really cool dreams and wake up, painting this:
Oh wait, he got there first. Starry Night, looks like a dream of the night, but chances are that he used his awakened imagination.
If life was a painting, what would you fill your canvas with? That’s always a good place to start, answering the question what do I want?
There have been times in my life when I wasn’t really certain what I wanted and my mum would say, well just choose something that feels good until you know what you really want.
And that turned out to be excellent advice because, at the very least I would experience something in my life that felt good, even when it wasn’t precisely what I might want. I think, in my ignorance of the laws of life, I thought I might get stuck with what I’d chosen, and never be able to choose something else. Funny that.
Instead of van Gogh, maybe I’ll choose this instead. I like Monet and gardens, plus I’ve been to Giverny and it’s really, really lovely. I want to go again. Right now. Are you listening my Darling One? Hello. Are you there? Anyone? Never mind, maybe I’ll just revel in this beauty for now.
These artists you’ll notice didn’t put life as it actually was on their canvas, their paintings were a reflection of their inner eye of imagination. And that’s the trick with our life canvas, it shouldn’t represent our life as it currently is, but the life that we want, and we get to choose what this is. Pretty cool stuff…yes?
Once I got the hang of this choosing stuff, I was on a roll. I’ll choose this…oh wait…no I think I’ll choose that…woops, changed my mind again.
Maybe it wasn’t so much a roll, more like a roller coaster. But at least I wasn’t getting life’s leftovers, I had the freedom to choose what felt good and there were days when I simply chose to feel happy because I would get confused about what I wanted.
Every day we get a new opportunity to create our own masterpiece, our greatest masterpiece, our wonderful, beautiful, amazing life.
I think I’ll start with something pink…I like pink…I’m filling my canvas today with health and wealth and happiness for everyone I know and love…and it looks pink to me. Did I forget to mention we can paint great pictures for others? It feels really good.
Encourage each other.
Love Elle.
xoxo
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3 Comments
Hi Elle,
If you check out my website you’ll see we have a bit in common. I accept guest posts and would love to have one from you if you’re interested. You can contact me if you like using the contact form on my blog.
Cheers!
Melissa
Wow. I’m honoured Mellissa. Your blog made me smile. It was funny reading your post about Sheffield, not a place many would recommend visiting. Not me though, my Dad came from there, Yorkshire accent and all!
Thanks for that awesome posting. Useful, and it saved MUCH time! 🙂