contradictions and complexities...

To create one's world in any of the arts

takes courage.

- Georgia O'Keefe

We are told

that success doesn't matter

and then we are given

the seven keys to success.

Magazines have articles that tell us

that real beauty is found within,

and photoshopped women

in high heels and fake boobs

adorn their pages.

We are told

to follow our own paths

and then given directions

by someone else

to get there.

We are torn between 

meditation and

medication,

between getting up

or staying in bed,

between the glass half full

or half empty,

and on certain days,

no glass at all.

We are misguided

and misunderstood.

We are led by blind leaders

who believe that

bombs are the way

to a peaceful planet

and that their way

is the only way.

Petty thieves

go to prison

and wall street criminals

walk the streets

in their sparkly suits.

Is it any wonder

so many of us have lost our way?

Is it any wonder

so many of us

spend our lives

trying to be someone else?

Trying to have what he has?

We no longer hear

our own voices,

in the cacophony of other voices

so much louder than our own,

so much shinier than our own

so much stronger than our own.

We no longer trust

our own path

our own experience

our own perception.

And yet, i believe there is hope.

There is hope 

because each of us

still has a voice.

Each of us still has a heart.

There is hope,

because as long as we have 

a heart

and the ability to quiet ourselves

long enough to listen,

long enough to feel,

long enough to trust

in our own voices again -

the tide will turn.

That's why art matters.

Because art is the voice of your heart

and your heart always has something to say.

Have the courage to let it speak its truth.

xox