Sometimes our days are a twirl of extreme happiness and extreme sorrow: all in one day we hear fantastic news from someone we love and we sense their elation; we comfort a friend who is grieving; we reach out to someone in need of healing; we are stunned and shocked by the world news.
We might choose one or the other state of being: happy or sad; or perhaps the qualities of joy and anguish could cancel out each other, leaving us numb. We might seek to numb our own sensibilities one way or another, rather than accept so much emotion. How can we celebrate a moment of great joy and also honor our grief and helplessness without feeling ourselves ricochet? What seems like an either/or choice doesn’t have to be a choice.
For many artists I know, we navigate this as we do our work: we let all of the feelings flow through us, beyond words, and flow from us into our artistic expression, which then speaks for us. Our gratitude, our trembling and tears, our longing for understanding and grace, our hope: powerful art contains the energy of these swirling elements of experience. We can feel each singular emotion and also a synthesis of all the emotions resonate deeply within us, and perhaps find peace in a simple way, just by accepting how much is going on within and around us.
Wooly Bliss 