Do Not Neglect the Gift that is in You.....
I had an epiphany on Thursday. Some of you are reading this rolling your eyes because this seems to be a common experience for me. :-) Others are thinking I don't know my calendar well because this can be attached to a Christian holiday following Christmas. Epiphany, in its most simple explanation, is a word that means you have a sudden and fierce emotional and spiritual reaction brought on by something common in your life. Artists rely on these occurrences for inspiration. Thursday I was so overpowered by it that it actually became a life-altering incident.
I work at a dance studio. No secret. I love performing arts and being in the midst of it. I am most comfortable and myself when there is either one, a musical instrument, or two, a camera, in my hands. Tada! No big surprise there. But Thursday....I was sitting on the floor, camera in hand, photographing two of the most incredibly beautiful dancers I have ever watched, and felt I was being pulled into a fully different realm in the world of art. "This," I thought, "this is who I am." I am an artist. It isn't a job, it isn't something I just do. Art is what I LIVE and BREATHE and have been CREATED to BE. Sitting in the midst of it on a hardwood floor, at the feet of other artists who operate within the same creative calling as I, but in a different genre, watching the inspiration pouring out into future artists as they learn from them, the Creator speaks to me:
"Do NOT neglect the gift that is in you....."
Before you decide that He DIDN'T say that, He said it to EVERYONE. First Timothy 4:14....loud and clear. I just heard it louder on Thursday than I had in the past.
I work at four different jobs. I care for the elderly. I introduce preschoolers to the world of music. I teach Zumba. I am a professional photographer. I am not career minded. I have a job because I need a job. I am an artist and have the privilege of working in that arena on a daily basis. I write because the written word is powerful, and words have a beauty all their own. I am an artist because I AM CALLED. Whether I am choreographing a music set or a photo shoot, if I am outdoors singing at the top of my lungs from the top of a mountain where only God and mountain goats are my audience or seated in the midst of three year olds singing at the top of their lungs, if I am making one person smile, enriching a life in any way, I am doing the work that I am called to do. I AM an artist. It's the only thing I can really do. It's His gift in me, not my own. And I am determined to do it WELL.
Watch for your epiphany. It might not be art. It might be accounting. It might selling shoes. Whatever it is, if it is built into you, DO IT. Because YOUR gift is given to you because YOU are the best person to do it. Enough said. :-)
I work at a dance studio. No secret. I love performing arts and being in the midst of it. I am most comfortable and myself when there is either one, a musical instrument, or two, a camera, in my hands. Tada! No big surprise there. But Thursday....I was sitting on the floor, camera in hand, photographing two of the most incredibly beautiful dancers I have ever watched, and felt I was being pulled into a fully different realm in the world of art. "This," I thought, "this is who I am." I am an artist. It isn't a job, it isn't something I just do. Art is what I LIVE and BREATHE and have been CREATED to BE. Sitting in the midst of it on a hardwood floor, at the feet of other artists who operate within the same creative calling as I, but in a different genre, watching the inspiration pouring out into future artists as they learn from them, the Creator speaks to me:
"Do NOT neglect the gift that is in you....."
Before you decide that He DIDN'T say that, He said it to EVERYONE. First Timothy 4:14....loud and clear. I just heard it louder on Thursday than I had in the past.
I work at four different jobs. I care for the elderly. I introduce preschoolers to the world of music. I teach Zumba. I am a professional photographer. I am not career minded. I have a job because I need a job. I am an artist and have the privilege of working in that arena on a daily basis. I write because the written word is powerful, and words have a beauty all their own. I am an artist because I AM CALLED. Whether I am choreographing a music set or a photo shoot, if I am outdoors singing at the top of my lungs from the top of a mountain where only God and mountain goats are my audience or seated in the midst of three year olds singing at the top of their lungs, if I am making one person smile, enriching a life in any way, I am doing the work that I am called to do. I AM an artist. It's the only thing I can really do. It's His gift in me, not my own. And I am determined to do it WELL.
Watch for your epiphany. It might not be art. It might be accounting. It might selling shoes. Whatever it is, if it is built into you, DO IT. Because YOUR gift is given to you because YOU are the best person to do it. Enough said. :-)
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