Every child is an artist.
The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.
I first heard this quotation by Pablo Picasso watching a YouTube video of Amanda Palmer talking about being an artist. “Connecting The Dots” is about the way digital publishing has leveled the playing field and how vulnerable writers are in this venue.
Yes, writers and painters and musicians are able to now share their gifts via social media, but Palmer compares the Internet to the Wild West where pickpockets and snipers abound. With the Internet you do not get to choose. Cyber criticism can be cruel.
It is very interesting to me that I watched the video because I am participating with a handful of other writers in an eight-week intensive. A few years ago, I discovered my love of writing and I added the word author to my online bio.
Admittedly, that late discovery of myself as a writer seems strange. I am someone with fifty years of journals. I am also someone who blogs regularly, publishes a wellness tip and a wholesome thought (audio and text) weekly, and co-authors a monthly newsletter.
But am I a writer just because my heart lives in a world of words?
Texting clients, family, or friends, meeting with a couple, creating a custom wedding ceremony for them, and then officiating at their wedding are also part of my world of words.
My maiden name is Smith. In my heart, my prayer is that I am a wordsmith: a person who works with words; especially a skillful writer (Merriam-Webster).
As Palmer says, once you share your art, the response is what it is. “You, as the writer, have to weather the critics.” That made me think of the Eight Worldly Dharmas I have been working with for a bit over a year. The dharmas come in pairs, and as we grasp for one, we are vulnerable to the other. I think they will make good sense to you.
Pleasure and pain
Loss and gain
Praise and blame
Fame and disgrace
My work around the dharmas included the “Reflections on Universal Well-Being” chanted by the monks of Abhayagiri Monastery, a Buddhist Monastery in the Thai Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah.
May I abide in well-being, in freedom from affliction, in freedom from hostility, in freedom from ill will, in freedom from anxiety, and may I maintain well-being in myself.
May everyone abide in well-being, in freedom from affliction, in freedom from hostility, in freedom from ill will, in freedom from anxiety, and may they maintain well-being in themselves. May all beings be released from all suffering, and may they not be parted from the good fortune they have attained.
When they act upon intention, all beings are the owners of their own action and inherit it’s results. Their future is born from such action, companion to such action, and it’s results will be there home. All actions with intentions, be they skillful or harmful, of such acts they will be the heirs.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama says, “Spiritual practice is difficult in the beginning. You wonder how on earth you can ever do it. But as you get used to it, the practice gradually becomes easier. Do not be too stubborn or push yourself too hard. If you practice in accord with your individual capacity, little by little you will find more pleasure and joy in it. As you gain inner strength, your positive actions will gain in profundity and scope.”
May it be so….
