The Artist in His Studio, Rembrandt, 1626

Here I am at the page. I am sitting on my bare front porch, facing gray-green mountains with white peaks and a blue sky above. A breeze brushes past. I had decided I wouldn’t write anything today.

I didn’t feel so good. It took so long to get ready for the day. I took my daughter a drink because she had a sore throat. I put the hose in the pressure washer tank so when the customer came it would be full. I rode with Abby to town to get the car which was parked at the grocery store because someone borrowed it yesterday. I packed a lunch. I talked to my sis and she said something about being burned out. Nothing happened. It was an uneventful day with routine tasks and a no new thoughts in the ‘grey woods of my mind.’

The time to write had passed. So I ate my lunch and went on with the afternoon tasks.

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Yet I had made a committment to myself to send something out into the world once a week. In other work I have been writing about showing up. I’ve encouraged others in real life to keep on, even through the hard or boring days. So why shouldnt I take my own advice?

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Reading books about art have intriqued me and inspired me this year. It’s a world I know very little about. One new thought is a painting is made from so very many brush strokes, applied over a long peroid of time. The finished masterpiece is developed and built layer upon layer, here a dab there a dab, with many a step back to see the effect of the whole.

There is also an art to life. Every day presents us with opportunities to do a small thing well, to do the right thing over and over, to show up and try one more time. It takes a long time to build a good life and as long as we live we will be at it.

So show up today for your work. Put in the little bit of extra effort. Give it your best today, especially if its only mundane. Over time, the masterpiece appears.

-Liz