embrace: artist

many a young heart has been seduced by the word, artist. How many of us, when asked as a child, what we wanted to be when we grow up, answered this perfect, complex word but left it behind as innocence was changed to practicality when coupled with adult responsibilities such as rent, utilities and a car payment.

I've never grown out of it... When youthful abandon turned to adolescent ambivalence, artist became a term of rebellion and defiance. Now, as a nearly 30 something, the definition for me has changed. Artist is not a painter, or an actor or singer. It is the entire art of everyday life. What one does on a daily basis to create their own world. What comes to mind for me now is that being an artist opens an entire otherworld of possibilities....the art of living and of being a giver.

A giver of what?

....of joy, of sight, of themselves. Those who consider themselves artists let others view the often repressed emotions and feelings so seldom expressed by others.

so today...give to others, love yourself, and above all, create something of beauty, whatever you conceive that beauty to be....in this broken and often sad world.