We flipped on the TV in Bay St. Louis, MS this morning. A rare quiet and unplanned day. On the TV, was a 40 year retrospective on the show Sunday Morning. It immediately reminded me of my dad and growing up. A wave of nostalgia and the same impatience from the early 80’s. Even 30 something years later I felt at once compelled to watch while at the same time thinking how slowly the show moved. Today I appreciate that pace.
They ran through the musicians. The stories of the theme song played by first Doc Severinsen and later in 2004, by Wynton Marsalis.
In watched them roll through the fact that they have, over time, featured 1000 different visual artists. Andy Warhol, 8 times and Picasso, a dozen. I thought, I wish I was more of an artist. The pace and the quiet of the painters and photographers creating struck me as a luxury not built into most of our lives.
But life is art. Your life is. Anyone can create. And whether anyone sees what you create or not. It benefits you. It calms the soul and it opens us to the vulnerability of creating.
Creating can be anything and the beauty of art is that you get to decide what is and what isn’t by what it means to you.
A perfectly executed race, a painting, a proposal written and rewritten with just the right words in the right places. All art.
I read that 45 mins of art drops your cortisol levels and stress, and god knows we all need that. And the art of practice builds confidence and relaxes the brain as well.
So this week, take a minute. Consider what it is you create and create time to do it.
Charles Kuralt would approve.
#hugsandhi5s
