The Birth Place of Beauty

Recently someone related a story to me about a woman who was married to a man that was a bit controlling when it came to the television remote, so much so you might even say he was mean.  Most of their married life was lived in a time when most homes only had one T.V.  This man would never let his wife watch what she wanted. 

Because of this reality, after a long day of taking care of her work and family she did not have the luxury to sit down in front of the television and let the stresses of the day be washed away by the laughter a good comedy provided.  Nor did she have the good fortune of being able to step outside of her own story and get lost in the drama of someone else's.  Instead of becoming angry or embittered towards her husband’s inability to think of her and share the television, she turned to art.

At first, she began to form figures out of clay and paint them.  The time she would normally have spent watching TV became an opportunity to turn lumps of earth into the shapes of people.  The paint she would add brought color and life to the clay.  Each one would become its own little masterpiece.  She now has a cabinet filled with these pieces of art which were only created because of the gift of time created by a husband who would not share control of the remote.

Having made an entire community of these figures, she moved to painting on canvas.  She loved the ability to do the intricate work which would turn brush strokes into beautiful pictures.  Here she painted more than people, she captured the beauty of places and grand vistas. She did not make this move to pick up the brush and palette until she had entered mid-life.  It connected her to her mother who had also been very artistic.  What could have simply been an irritation in her marriage became the path which led her to develop her gift.

As she got older, she suffered some set-backs with her health which prevented her from being able do the intricate work required to continue painting on canvas (though she is tenacious and continues to invest effort in getting back her former skill).  Most people might simply give up painting and think to themselves, “Well, that season of life is over,” but not this lady.  She moved to painting small tiles.  This medium did not require the same kind of exactness as painting on canvas, but it did allow her to continue to grow and develop her artistic bent as she explored a new form of expression.

Because of this woman’s unwillingness to simply sulk over not having a husband who would consider what she wanted to watch, she developed a gift which might have otherwise lain dormant.  Because she would not allow changes in her motor skills to keep her from being able to express her creativity, she developed new mediums of articulation.  I have not seen her work personally, but I have been told, the art that now decorates her home is quite beautiful.  It is a beauty which was born out of the harsh reality of a husband who would not share.

I do not know if this woman has ever shown or sold her art, but I do know there is beauty that has been created because of her willingness, in the midst of this hard ship, to push off anger and bitterness and step into creativity.  She was able to recognize the path disappointment might be providing for the development of something she was uniquely created to do.  

In the midst of our own hard places, what would it be to take on the attitude of this lady?  Rather than sulking about the injustice of it all, what would it be to step into this place and redeem it?  Imagine what might exist a year from now, a decade in the future, or at the end of your life if you chose to live like this woman.

I am amazed as I look around me at what extraordinary things exist because of ordinary people like you and I who do not simply accept harsh reality as the end of the road.  You say to me, yes but I do not have an artistic bone in my body.  Join the club!  That doesn’t mean you do not have the capacity to bring beauty to the world.  Your hurtful experience may be the birthplace of the encouraging words which bring hope to someone who is walking the same road.  Your unexpected availability might give you the space to express an act of kindness, allowing another to feel loved.  Your capacity to simply listen may be all the beauty the person who is heard needs to experience.  Yes, these may not seem as material as a painting hanging on a wall, but this does not mean their expression will not create a moment which is any less impactful than the instant you first experience a beautiful piece of art.

In you there is a unique gift, one which no one else possesses in quite the same way.  The setbacks, unkindness, and hard places you experience in your life can do one of two things.  They can be the rocks upon which these gifts are smashed, or they can be avenues which allow for their growth and development.  What determines the outcome is our attitude in facing the trial.  Do we see it as something which diminishes us and robs us of the capacity for expression, or do we see it as a stone upon which our gifts sharpened and refined.  Could it be the experience is actually creating the space where your gifts can grown in ways they never could otherwise?

Having heard of the story of this artist, I am willing to bet the answer is yes.