surprising

Things are almost always a surprise, aren’t they?

When I decided to do this little challenge, I had visions of myself posting through the year in chronological order, making some kind of beautiful homage to the things I’d missed. I crack myself up sometimes. What I’ve discovered, rather quickly, is that I don’t remember much that I don’t post about here…  So. This next month should be interesting.

In another surprise turn, I went to the dentist today so that he could “look at” my temporary crown that’s been hurting off and on since he put it in a week or so ago. Somehow “look at” turned into “root canal.” I’ve been pretty worthless for the rest of the day.

All that to say that I find myself looking through iPhoto and my own blog archives trying desperately to get a grip on something, anything that happened in the early fall of 2009, so that I can start this thing.

And here’s what I found. This post from last September, that I wrote without any kind of goal in mind, just trying to capture what the process of making art means to me. Nothing special – but how wonderful it was to read these words back again, now that I know what came later.

You see, just a couple of months after I dreamed in a meeting, then wrote those words, I found myself smack in the middle of forming a flash mob. And I am amazed at how much these words from last September held true for that experience, all the way around.

What I dream of, what I hope will happen, is art.  Such a small word for so much – the act of creation, the beauty of a moment.  I am fascinated by it in almost any form; the perfect step and turn of a dance, a look through a lens, the perfect phrasing of a song or a poem.  Done well, with skill and care, it stops me, arrests me.  I feel a tiny, fiery connection to all of creation and to the God who is creator.

But it’s not just the finished work that I love; it’s the process and the people.  I love artists – these brave souls who splatter themselves on a canvas, who dare to place a piece of themselves right out there in the world.  I love people who wouldn’t call themselves artists, but who are ready to try.  I love the wonder in someone’s eyes when they let go a little, the absorption that comes when they are given permission to pursue a creative task.  We all have something of that Creator’s spark, and I am amazed by the redemptive work art does in us.

What will happen?  I don’t know.  But it was fun today to dream…

The beauty of a moment.

The connection.

The people who wouldn’t call themselves artists, the wonder, the letting go.

Who knew? Certainly not me. So here’s to dreaming when all I really want to do is expire from the heat. Here’s to remembering that even when I don’t know what’s next, good things are in store.