From The Personal To The Universal, Lighting an Art Fire

Photo by Jackson Hendry on Unsplash

I use these blog posts as a way to unpack all of the thoughts and considerations that I have in regards this conception that art is the craft of life.  This post is no exception.  And I may repeat myself sometimes but it is all in service of getting full on into what this conception has to offer.  I feel there is truly an extraordinary opportunity to create a daily artistic practice for anyone interested in deepening self-knowledge, a transpersonal and larger social impact.  

Sometimes it feels as though I am writing out into the ether.  I hunger for conversations that feed the soul and the mind in ways that bring forth our innate sense of wonder.  It’s that person-to-person interaction that can be so inspiring.  Sometimes we can get that from reading another person’s writing.  That is a good way, a very convenient and accessible way of getting involved with another’s thoughts.  But actual person-to-person interaction is also very key in the end to how to bring about real change and transformation in the sphere we like to call reality.

And that can be a huge challenge sometimes.  I know I find it a challenge for myself.  I love conversations but I do not have as many of them or as often in quality or specified content as I would like to have.  It can be a challenge to find like-minded individuals with which to share insights and epiphanies.  And this after all, this kind of exchange is where the real genesis of change and transformation takes place.  What if we could somehow meaningfully increase the amount of opportunities that we have to engage on topics of interest we have near and dear to our heart?  

This is in part why I have been developing something called The Art Fire.  It is intended to be a place for folks to interact with one another on themes that the book I have written, called The Art Flame, addresses.  I am finding that I am called more and more to make podcasts and video blogs along with my writing, my blog posts and Medium posts in order to continue to unpack all of the truly inspiring content that goes along with the conception that art is the craft of life.  

One of the biggest parts of this work is the idea of a daily practice.  That, I am coming to understand.  Meditation is a part of that but for our purposes it goes into meditation as an artistic act.  And that to me is really exciting and something new.  I have not seen that yet in my research and study.  It gives us that much more leverage and flexibility to be able to nimbly engage with what life offers us and how best to respond to it.  

I find that each time I do writing of this nature, though it is similar from one passage to the next that bits of genius emerge.  And I of course do not use the word genius in an egoistical way.  I mean it in a way that we all have genius in us.  It is innate.  And we are discovering more and more the extent to which that is true.  

So I offer to you today some contemplation in regards how a daily practice of using artistic ways of thinking as a means for unlocking more and more of your day in a meditational way can better your life and being in some truly special ways.  I come back to this saying quite a bit but it is as if we truly are painting with reality in this way.  That is why as we go along it is so important to keep in mind compassion, kindness and gratitude as we help to allow ourselves the agreeableness of the present and come to life through right attitude, gathering truly all that is available to us with our mind, body, heart, spirit and soul.  Be well.