that crystal moment

With this change of seasons, I feel a vibrancy for life surging back to me... it's also coming back to the people I love and care deeply about. I sense this emotionally darkest of years hatching around us in a fantastic display of color, warmth of the heart, growth of the soul, and most importantly, empathy and collaborative hope.

Yesterday we spent hours sitting on the rocky shoreline looking out at the deep navy reservoir, disregarding the clock, soaking up every last ray of warmth the sun had to offer. Autumn is peaking right now, and the trees are shades of reds, oranges, yellows, and greens. This world feels full. My heart feels full- for the friends who have come to understand who I am and know what we desire together. They challenge me to always live with purpose and give praise where it's easy to be humble and hard on myself.

 "Artists are some of the most driven, courageous people on the face of the earth. They deal with more day-to-day rejection in one year than most people do in a lifetime. Every day, artists face the financial challenge of living a freelance lifestyle, the disrespect of people who think they should get real jobs, and their own fear that they’ll never work again. Every day, they have to ignore the possibility that the vision they have dedicated their lives to is a pipe dream. With every role, they stretch themselves, emotionally and physically, risking criticism and judgment. With every passing year, many of them watch as the other people their age achieve the predictable milestones of normal life - the car, the family, the house, the nest egg. Why? Because artists are willing to give their entire lives to a moment - to that line, that laugh, that gesture, or that interpretation that will stir the audience’s soul. Artists are beings who have tasted life’s nectar in that crystal moment when they poured out their creative spirit and touched another’s heart. In that instant, they were as close to magic, God, and perfection as anyone could ever be. And in their own hearts, they know that to dedicate oneself to that moment is worth a thousand lifetimes."

- David Ackert

That thought keeps coming back to me today. I'm finally accepting that I am an artist, and not just me, but we all have the capability to live as an artist, for we are born that way and it's only through the injustices of childhood and the fallacies of what it means to be an "adult" (a stagnant, unchanging, unlearing, ungrowing, unfree person who can apparently be considered someone who's "grown up") that it's taken away from us. I'm so fortunate to have a mind open to change, and to be reminded by children every day of how extensively a human being can grow in a just matter of years. Why should that amazement and passion and vibrancy for being alive vanish with adulthood? It shouldn't. It doesn't have to unless you let it.

Artists are beings who have tasted life’s nectar in that crystal moment when they poured out their creative spirit and touched another’s heart. In that instant, they were as close to magic, God, and perfection as anyone could ever be.

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