Often times when I think about self understanding and growing in your art I refer to it as going deeper, or mining the well. This is how it seems to me. We go further into our souls, not searching necessarily but growing in our self. I don't feel that going deeper into myself is a search so much as it is developing patience, kindness and self understanding so I can try to be better.
Recently my friend Sheree Fitch, the writer, told me that she does not think of this as a well into which she goes deeper and deeper. Instead she said,
"And I love the channels I swim in...
Channels... not wells for me... channels of the oceans .. the Fundy tides"
I loved this idea because a channel tells us that we are on a path, in flow, but that the tides are always changing. I imagine Sheree with her big blond curls as a mermaid swimming in the ocean and finding herself there. Then emerging through the surface of the water with her arms wide full of thoughts and ideas to share.
The changing tides allowing her to shift between thoughts and ideas as she ages.
Our imaginations help us develop our sense of being who we are in the world. That precious gift we have to picture ourselves and create metaphor helps us understand and get in touch with our soul.
When I think of the well, or the channel, I think of getting in touch with my soul. It is not that I am searching for something outside myself but something within myself. I think of God or Divine being in each of us. I see it so clearly in others at times. The smile, the laugh, the tears. I see it right in their eyes. To find it in myself I need to quiet the chatter and go within.
Seeking is very different than searching. We seek what we know is already there. So my longing for self understanding is not a quest, it is a commitment. I am not falling into a well, or loosely swimming by myself in a big ocean. Instead there is a channel in the sea, into the earth, the forest, or up the mountain. wherever my imagination takes me. That is the channel to soulfulness.
The further we go, the more self aware we become, the more we can give to the world around us as artists but also as people. I have found that more I understand my own needs the more I understand the needs of others.
We are all seeking, and in that seeking we find a way to live a life that matters. We seek so we can understand what it really is we have to give. Self awareness can combat self indulgence. We do not seek because we are self centred, but so we can find the love within us that each of has been blessed with, and we then share that love.
