Finding the artist's way

“If you've never stared off into the distance, then your life is a shame.”  Counting Crows

Forty years ago, I pulled a book down from a friend’s shelf. The title, The Artist’s Way, stirred that part of me that longed to be an artist. I was a chaplain at a school in England and knew the spring within me was drying up. It turned out the book would change my life forever.

The memory is far from me now, but it came for a visit when I bought another copy and committed to working through its twelve-week creativity course. “But you’re already creative,” I could hear people say, but creativity, like spirituality, is a life-long journey. The book hasn’t changed in forty years, but I have. I’m sure this journey will be unlike any other.

I share this to invite you to consider trying something you’ve done before. Maybe you read a book you loved in college, climb a familiar trail, or try a sport you used to love. Whatever you choose, the important thing is to experience something as if for the first time. Yes, you might remember what you loved long ago, but you also may notice changes within you since your last encounter.

“Every child is an artist,” Picasso once said. “The problem is how to remain an artist once he (she) grows up.” Ted Lasso would remind us to be curious. I would say, always feed your sense of wonder. However you describe it, 2024 offers us the chance to try old things in new ways, to stare off in the distance and dream outlandish dreams, to be the child you’ve always been.

Who knows what you’ll find, but I’m pretty sure you’ll have fun along the way.