The Artist Inside

The Artist in You

“Inside you there’s an artist you don’t know about. Say yes quickly, if you know, if you’ve known it from before the beginning of the universe.” Jalai Ud-Din Rumi

There’s a homeless man who lives somewhere nearby—by the train tracks, or under an overpass. He’s the kind of homeless person one never sees at the shelter, even when the weather is cold. He pushes a shopping cart filled with stuff he’s found. Everything about him is charcoal gray; his hair, his clothing, his skin, the contents of the shopping cart. I watch him as I drive by in my car, always walking at the same slow pace, sometimes feeding the pigeons on the corner by the Piggly Wiggly. Winter or summer, he’s wearing the same gray rags. There are countless other people on the street; joggers, dog-walkers, the Altamont track team loping along. I see them, but they don’t hold my attention the way that silent, gray presence does. He’s made an impression in my brain, so much so that when I see that color in another context, I think ‘there he is.’

There is an artist in every one of us. In the way that we dress each day, in the little personal tweaks we give to our appearance, in the sweep of hair, color of eyes. The ‘gray man’ is no exception. He casts a one-of-a-kind shadow on the landscape, instantly recognizable as himself alone. Most of us have a hard time thinking of ourselves as artists—that’s a title reserved for folks who create symphonies, have paintings in the Louvre, or act on Broadway. We think of ourselves as ordinary. And yet, we get up each day, make choices that speak to our uniqueness, and go out into the day as the only ‘me’ there is. We leave our own indelible mark on the world.

Today, as you are bathing, dressing, brushing, think, ‘the artist in me is painting a picture of my oneness, my singularity, and that painting is distinctive and beautiful.’ Give yourself a little touch of class that others will recognize as your perfect expression of you. You are an artist—claim it.

Uniquely yours,
Jane