Encourage Expression.

I was always encouraged by my mother in my ability to draw, to write a story, to write poetry as a child. Somewhere in my youth I lost the desire to let my creative side flourish. A very special person, who has always been gravitated towards artistry since I have known her, revealed about herself that she has a desire to pursue the talent she has within. I know my mind works in a weird way. I often see situations dealing with life with a very black and white eye, I have trouble seeing the gray area within the dynamics of relation to other people.

I ran from dealing with life for a very long time. I ran for so long that I forgot how to truly live. I dealt with life in a very unrealistic reality by using drugs to buffer my mind from the true reality that exists. To numb the God given mind I have and not deal with life. By doing this I brushed away all that that God has given me to express who I am. Regaining the beauty is what I have struggled to do for the last three and a half years. To find the balance and rhythm of life and to express my true self through the art in me. A large part of the of finding the freedom to express me is purely the fear of rejection. To be told it isn't good enough, to be told I am wasting my time with it, to be told my outward expression of love is not good enough.

My mother is not guilty of ever telling me my expression of who I was inside was not good enough, but I have been told that I will never amount to anything, that I am a failure, a "screw up" by influential people during a crucial development in my life. The key to being able to unravel the damage done, to sift through the mess I have lived, and again express who I am has happened only because of the security offered to me in love. The space offered to feel loved, to live a life and be encouraged to express the artistic side of me.

I love looking at life through the lens of a camera, I love putting my thoughts and emotions down on a piece of paper that expresses me. Art, I believe, is historical evidence of people's recognition and worship of God who Himself created a planet of beautiful artistry. I believe Pablo Picasso understood a simplistic truth about art and is quoted as saying "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."

So whether you express the art in you by drawing, painting, written word, music, whatever way you express the gift God has placed within us, do it knowing the beauty it holds and take a minute to appreciate the beauty God has placed in someone else.