The art of living

White as the color of innocence, white as the canvas you have in front of you each time you start working on a painting or other art form.

just like every other artist you work on your art  in stages.

You begin and all you have in front of you is this white, empty canvas, or a white paper if you are a writer in my case.

There it is, in front of you, and a few hours later, or a few days later, or maybe even years later you have the finished result. Many people think that art is born when the artist conceives an idea and he manages to put it down successfully and present it to the world. 

This is not the whole truth, the artist does not put down simply ideas, what he does is bringing out a feeling, for art is always about feelings, feelings we are not able to express in other ways.

Something that hurt you in the past, something that might still hurt you, something you experienced and has moved your world inside out, it might be sadness, passion, desire, or your hidden hopes and dreams.

This is art, bringing out a piece of one’s soul primarily to release his own soul and then to share it with someone else.

Just like painting our own life begins with an empty white canvas. The only difference is that though we are all born white and innocent as this empty canvas, there is a period of our lives that other people draw or paint on us.

These are the first critical years of our childhood, and if we have a happy childhood we have a happy start off with lovely colors on our canvases, beautiful flowers and pink butterflies, a yellow bright sun in the corner of the page, a bright blue sky and white seagulls. In a few words if you have a happy colorful canvas to start with, then it’s easier to have a healthy adulthood with happy colors to continue.

But really, how many people out there have had happy childhoods? I’ m not really sure, but I’m sure that there are people who have not had such colorful childhoods, neither rainbows, blue skies and butterflies!

So did you start with a black canvas? blue? grey? and what are the odds of getting brighter colors on your life’s canvas at your adulthood? Do you have a chance or are you stuck with black, blue and grey for the rest of your life?

There will come one day in your life that you will have to make a decision.  The options are always there and you do have a choice! You always have a choice, but you are the one who has to decide first if you want to continue letting others coloring your life’ s  painting or if you are going to do it yourself.

 And then, the day you decide it is you who is in charge, it is your own life, it is your own responsibility, no one else’s, you are the one holding that pen and drawing every line,  you are the one making a small and big decision every day, how to live your life, where to live, with whom, then, when you decide to take life in your hands, it doesn’t matter what you decide to be, a white demon, a black angel, just as long as you hold the paintbrush every step of the way.

Holding the pen or the paintbrush gives you the freedom and the responsibility that comes with it, at any given stage of your life to take a few steps back, take a look at your life’s canvas, and ask yourself.

Am I happy with what I have designed so far?

Do I like this picture? Do I want to make a small or big change? So, if you are feeling sad, unhappy, stressed, if you don’t like the picture, you know, that you have the right and the power to change it, delete parts of it and recreate new ones, correct mistakes and start again, on a new canvas, with new colors, better colors, brighter colors, and this is the true beauty of being alive and enjoy the art of Living.