I’ve been doing a lot of business alignment things of late. Checking in with myself as to why I do art and why I want to share it out in the world. Why I’ve decided that my job is to make art and exactly what that job looks like. It has been a process.
I’m still learning to allow myself to believe in my creative abilities and to trust that the universe will support this choice that I’ve made to follow my dream of being a full-time artist. I admit, it is scary, but I decided to do it anyway. I’ve been looking into stories that I didn’t even consciously know I held and questioning whether they’re true or not.
After a day of drizzle, sunset colors broke through under the cloud covering on July 31, 2015, immediately after I finished a blue moon burning ceremony in which I’d released my fears and called in my desires.
I was raised with a strong work ethic which suggested that I must be practical and learn practical skills in order to work and support myself. Somehow in my mind this implied that things such as doing art and/or playing music, another lifelong passion of mine, were not practical and that I could never support myself doing them.
I have spent my entire adult life working in “practical” day jobs and then fitting art and music around the jobs. The practical skills that I’d learned in school did indeed make it possible to always find work and I’m grateful for that. But, while I was very good at the various office jobs I’ve done, and I was always an excellent employee, the work itself did not fully satisfy a core hunger to do work that was personally meaningful.
Through self-reflection, and with guidance and encouragement from teachers, I have come to see that I am here to creatively express my truth out in to the world. One of my coaches, Robin Hallett, says that we are each here to shine our light in our sliver of the universe. I’m the only one who can shine my light, my way. Everyone else has their lights to shine too. When we all do that and allow each other to shine … well can you imagine what that world would be like? I think it would be a wonderful place indeed.
I’d recently listened to a talk given by Anita Moorjani, the author of the book “Dying To Be Me,” in which she recounted her amazing near-death experience, and her advice was, “Be yourself. Be as you as you can be.” She said, “If you don’t be yourself, you deprive the universe of who you’ve come here to be.”
Who am I to deprive the entire universe of whatever gift it is that I am here to give? I humble myself before the vast universe and ask, how can I serve? What is it that I am here to give? The best I can do is open myself up, allow myself to show up in my job as artist and to work and create and express whatever I can from here, from my little sliver of this universe, and hope that I am able to shine my light while I am still here and able.
On the evening of July 31, 2015, the Universe gave me a “hug” with a stunning sunset and a cloud thumbs up immediately after I’d put out a call for success in my life as a full-time artist.
This morning I was answering business-alignment questions and I sat for a while with the question, “What is my mission?” Since I am now a full-time artist, I think it may also be my life’s mission. Here is what came:
My mission:
“To create beautiful art that brings joy and delight to people and offers a loving visual hug when it is displayed and/or used.”
I imagine that a mission statement may need to be revisited periodically to make sure it still rings true, but today this is my mission in this wondrous world. Do you have a mission statement? Does it reflect the best you that you are here to be? Thank you for reading and for being. <3
Tammy