Through the years, I’ve been described by various loved ones and friends as someone who ‘flies under the radar’, diligent, responsible, someone who steps back and ‘let’s other people shine’, studious, and even once, as ‘medium functioning’. There was no harm intended in these comments, some might even call them a compliment of sorts (not me, but someone). The effect was that I began to believe that those things were the sum of me. I felt bound to the label that someone else slapped on my chest.
So, I lived in my diligent responsibleness, believing that creativity and the pursuit of the arts is for those other people. You know, the mad ones. The larger than life geniuses. The ‘look who just entered the room’ girls. The ones who ‘shine’. They, they are the art makers and seekers and enjoyers. Me, I’m an ordinary girl, and we all know that there is no art in the ordinary.
I’m not sure where this idea was birthed or why I nurtured it for so long, but it felt like it should be true. But what feels like truth, and what is truth are two different things. The truth is, I am as free to create as the mad and the genius. The pursuit of beauty isn’t limited to those who are extraordinary. Beauty beats as real and as strong in my chest as it does in theirs.
I am not limited to, not the sum of, the words that are spoken over me. And neither are you. What parts of yourself have you kept hidden because they don’t fit into the mold that others have created for you? Are you an athlete trapped in a middle aged body? A motivational speaker inside an introvert? A creative living a harried mom’s life?
Take the things that remain hidden, the true things, the things you’ve buried behind the labels, and draw them out of hiding.
Find the art in your ordinary. Find your freedom.
