Going Beyond Form
This sense of art as life is one where the word art can just simply be let go of, completely if it helps the realization of the sentiment. If simply calling it living brings out the miraculous, ultra-creative vitality that is called for then by all means call it simply living. There is a sense to it that calls upon the full range of personhood meaning compassion, empathy, joy, hope, kindness, love, peacefulness, sensitivity, inclusiveness, right-mindedness and all positive emotions but also sadness, anger, pain, loss, grief, melancholy and remorse. The sentiment shared in Full Catastrophe Living by mindfulness pioneer Jon Kabat Zinn shares something I feel with this wholistic notion I am describing here. It is about being whole, attuned and fully blessed. There is nothing to hold you back from becoming the full person that you were meant to be. Everything you need you have.
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This is the case especially in times of unrest as with the one we have been finding ourselves in currently around the world in the form of a global pandemic and awakening to social injustice. A sense of going within and acknowledging that there are things to learn truly, to be aware that we each have many, many more things to learn is imperative to the growth that we each must go through in the classroom of life. Times when our very lives are being threatened are opportunities where we can rise to our highest selves and truly become the whole people we are meant to be, for ourselves, for each other, for the world as it stands.
I have said it many times before, but it bears repeating. Practices like meditation, mindfulness, prayer, visualization, affirmations, manifesting, journaling, physical exercise, yoga and creativity (that includes not only the arts but all life practices) can be the most important types of ways of expressing our lives. Call it art or do not call it art. Just let it be whatever it wants to be. Maybe all of my work has been to help me release a sense of art so that I may truly live my life fully. That does not quite sound true to me and that is why I always come back to art as a touchstone for how to refer to this endeavor. But for some people, art will not be in their soul’s signature. They simply will not feel a pull at all to that concept. Somehow these activities that I speak of are the same though, I feel.
It is about self-realization. It is about being free in your soul and letting go of concepts. It is about being whoever you want to be without worrying about how you are going to arise in the world while allowing your innate goodness to arise. The art life dichotomy transcends concepts and words and takes us I feel to a way of being that draws upon that which is beyond form.
