Blow Off The Dust

“A peacefulness follows any decision, even the wrong one.” -Rita May Brown

I have shared my writing journey before. Living with a visual artist, one is saturated by the talent of that individual, and by the beauty on all the walls, and in every room. Even after his untimely death, the art surrounds me. His artistic soul shone brightly. It also meant that I was not an artist.
I did not understand then that comparison is the death of individuality. In discovering the writing world, I also found the silent artist within. It seems (to me) that we all have a silent artist within ourselves, individual to each of us.
Writing aside, I can give another example. Throughout my life, I have taken Spanish-1 three times. I took conversational Spanish for school office workers. I took Spanish for medical office personnel. With all of that, I have, maybe, 30 words I can use in a pinch. It seems that verbal language is not my forte.
Then, Laurie offered to teach American Sign Language (ASL). She is a visual artist in her own right. I have some of her art to prove that. And she is passionate about ASL as well. Like so much visual art, ASL is silent. The letters, numbers, and words are visual and tactile. I find that I am learning, and remembering, more of this beautiful language in less than a year; much, much more than the little Spanish I hold on to after fifty years of classes.
That brings me back to where I started. I believe that we all have artistic tendencies. I believe that when we compare ourselves to extraordinary talents in others, it causes us to bury our individualities. Or, at least, we lock them away in our personal, dark basements, allowing them to gather dust.
Perhaps we could find more peace in our lives when we reach out and try new things. I tried to become fluent in Spanish. It did not work out for me. You might say, I failed. But it led me to an appreciation for language and eventually to writing. The visual art form of writing led me to the visual art form of Signing. And, I do know 30 words of Spanish. The plus side of this is that you could experience peace because you are finally expressing what you have always wanted to share.
Now, it is time to bring out what you have been hiding from yourself, and the world. It will be different from what I have found, just as what I practiced was different from my artist husband’s legacy. This world is big enough. We can all share our talents.