Spiritual Things Matter

Sandy Carlson is a blogger friend that often visits my site. I have admired her work as well as her artistic abilities in writing, poetry, graffiti, photography, and making slides. You may visit her site here. She is not only a gifted individual but she also has a very gentle and kind spirit. I appreciate her very much and I wanted to post this essay she wrote. Well done, Sandy!

If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced. (Vincent Van Gogh)

Acceptance and rejection are two sides of a coin that must be invested and reinvested in the creative process. They are insights, holes in the walls that isolate us from the world around us and let in the light of understanding.

It can take time to assimilate both acceptance and rejection and avoid the pitfall of becoming complacent in response to the former and inactive in response to the latter. This can be difficult because artists are vulnerable at every turn in the creative process. They have expressed whatever is true and real in themselves in the truest, most real way possible, and they await a response. Will you stop and look? Give it a thought? Do you get it? Do you care?

On Sunday, I attended a forum on acceptance and rejection at Wisdom House. There, a panel of five artists–sculptor Joy Brown, poet Davyne Verstandig, visual artist and writer Florin Firimita, actress Cady McClain, and music director Tim Stella discussed the place of acceptance and rejection in their lives. Two reflections struck a chord with me.

One came from Florin Firimita. He talked about an experience about 18 years ago, shortly after he had emigrated from Romania to the US via Italy. He had been sitting for five hours with a gallery owner who had seen his work. At the end of the conversation, the gallery owner told him he wouldn’t show Firimita’s work–flowers and landscapes–because it was, he said, wall paper. He told the young artist he didn’t believe his body of work reflected who he was. Firimita spent a year thinking about what this provocative statement could mean. Ultimately, he discovered the gallery owner was right, and he changed his direction as an artist. His florals and landscapes gave way to psychological landscapes that explore the universal themes of identity, love, death, loss, reality, dreams and memories.

The other came from sculptor Joy Brown. She talked about her time in Japan as an apprentice sculptor. She had thrown countless sake cups, but not a one pleased her teacher. So off they went to the dump. The student had more to offer, and the teacher was not willing to settle before she realized it for herself. Accepting that meant accepting a broader horizon full of possibilities. She discovered later, though, that the man who had managed the dump had rescued her little cups from the rubbish and displayed them around his hut. They pleased him; he found them beautiful. These cups were works of art for him though they were merely a step in a broader creative process for Brown.

I’ve known acceptance and rejection. They feel the same to me. I prefer that moment when I am creating and nobody is around and the voice inside says “yes.” I don’t always here it, and it doesn’t last long; it doesn’t have to. The “yes” is the air in the cushion that protects me from the pain of rejection and even the painful challenge of acceptance. The “yes” tells me what I have done is true and good right now. And it asks, “Will you come with me, please?”

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man. ~William Shakespeare

Socrates knew that self-honesty seems to be one of the most important keys for human growth when he said, “Know Thyself.” I think about this subject often because I also desire a greater awareness to understand myself and to understand my fellow man.

“The admonition Know yourself was carved on the temple portal at Delphi, as testimony to a basic truth to be adopted as a minimal norm by those who seek to set themselves apart from the rest of creation as human beings, that is as those who know themselves“~ John Paul II. It is not an easy path when one first decides to live such a life, but one finds that the more one is committed to that principle, the easier and more enjoyable life seems to become. It is “easier,” because when practiced often, the pain and embarrassment to look within ourselves seems to diminish. It is “enjoyable,” because there is a certain amount of humor in being human. I am certain that each of us have found ourselves in embarrassing situations, and had a chuckle afterwards about our predicament.

Self-honesty, I believe, is a deeply spiritual principle. Spirituality is birthed forth in people who are not afraid to change and who are not timid in being authentic with everything and everyone in their lives. It is birthed from a desire to be, as one is, in the truest and finest form, energized by love with spiritual potential that is endless. I can not help but think about Christ Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane when he asked His Father if this cup could pass from Him, but because He had the insight of the much greater potential and purpose that was within Him, He quickly added, “Not my will, but Thine be done.”

On such a path of self examination and self-honesty, one begins to worry far less about what others think of them. They are far more focused on the condition of their own heart and their own motives. This path increases our joy as greater peace brings a heightened awareness that so much of the time spend on worries are truly wasted moments. Unlike love, prayer, devotion, kindness, and having good will towards all, worry is a weak energizer and does not possess the capability to bring lasting and positive changes into our lives.

Self-honesty has an interesting component to it in that it seems to be enlarging. Somehow, one will begin to look at things from a much broader perspective. Thus, in almost every part of one’s life – spiritually, emotionally, educationally, financially and even physically, one grows and one heals. Life becomes more simple, and so much falls by the way-side as the important from the unimportant is discerned. There simply is no end to the potential that self-honesty can bring into ones life.

William Shakespeare said it beautifully when he speaks of being true to oneself and our relationship with others: “Thou canst not be false to any man.” When we truly begin to be honest with ourselves, looking into the deepest corners of our hearts, and learn to deal kindly with ourselves, we begin to have greater compassion and kindness for others as well. It is a beautiful by-product of grace and love that extends itself outward to others. Thus, honest relationships are always the best because one does not have to be afraid and hide any longer but is free to be who they are. It is a liberating experience to find such freedom!

The “human condition” itself has great limitations. It is truly only through a spiritually energized life that grace is given to go beyond the limitations of being earth-bound… touching heavenly realms that bring deep meaning and comfort to life as one discovers the true Self within.

Know Thyself…and be at peace!