Are you painting your picture or someone else’s?
ByI was at my local church service today and the priest shared a story that I loved – especially as at 54, I have started painting and drawing for the first time .
The bible reading was the story of the fig tree that wasn’t bearing fruit, the landowner wanted to dig it up, but the farmer pleaded for another year so that he could loosen the soil around it add some manure.
So we were exploring the issues around the expectations you would have from a fig tree – that it would give you figs!! Not oranges or lemons or any other kind of fruit. So in our our own lives it’s important to know what kind of fruit it is natural for us to bear – what are our talents and our real heart’s desires. What do we want to manifest, to bring forth in this world. What is our contribution?
Are you giving enough space and air to your unique gifts that the world is waiting for? Do you need to manure and feed and water them more?
The story the priest told, was when he was working in Tanzania. He had a week’s holiday and went to study with a local artist, who ran week long classes. He described sitting next to an African woman, who filled her palette with an array of bright colours and then started to paint an exuberant picture with bright sweeps and swirls! He went to choose his paints, and instead of the colours he normally chose, he picked the brighter ones and started a large, swirling picture. Within a few minutes, he was completely lost. He didn’t understand the colours and how they worked together, or how to paint big. The teacher came by and said – “Why are you trying to paint like an African – you’re never be an African – you must paint from your palette in your own style.”
It’s easy to look around and to see other people and their paintings, and try to copy them. But unless you’re really coming from your own soul space it’s hard to really paint your own picture, dance your own dance, sing your own song or live your own life.
