3 minute read
the heart wants art
I didn’t know that the Mona Lisa painting became popular after it was stolen. Talk about absence making the heart grow fonder!
We often don’t realize the impact art can have on our hearts.
Art, in any form, can guide and motivate and inspire us.
So . . .
What art inspires you?
What speaks to your heart?
Art is an object or experience created through an expression of skill or imagination.
source: NationaltoDay.com
a book that spoke to my heart
As I was writing this today, I thought about one of the first books I remember reading (circa 1972), and how it inspired my heart. To me, it seemed like a real grown-up book and obviously had a meaningful impact on me.
I remember buying the paperback novel at school at the book fair, a big air-conditioned trailer (bus?) filled with books. I was in third grade and had money (several dimes) burning a hole in my pocket. And there it was! The Changeling by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (published in 1970). A story about the friendship of two girls: Martha, who was shy and fearful and Ivy, who was free-spirited, mystical, imaginative.
The cover design art also impacted me. I can still see it: the gangly girl (Ivy) swaying and dancing in the woods. If I could ask the eight-year-old me if she chose this book because of that cover, I bet she’d say she did—that the art inspired her heart. (Well, she probably wouldn’t have said those exact words, but, since the theme here is Inspire Your Heart With Art, the older me embellished a bit.)
I remember sitting in my backyard (beside the woods) and reading it in my “tree fort,” a rusty metal framed jungle gym, no roof, with a wood platform that seemed super high but was probably only six feet off the ground, and a wonky metal pole hanging in the center of the platform for quick slide-down exits.
the memory stayed
Some days, ya gotta love the internets. After diving down a rabbit hole in search of The Changeling, I found it—the book, that cover!
I’ll share with you a little secret: Almost fifty years after reading it, despite countless other books I read through the years, the memory of The Changeling’s cover art was there, tucked away in my heart, as I wrote these lines in the final chapter of my book:
. . . and she appeared to dance and move, hands and feet in all directions, which made her arms seem more like wings. It was an illusion though. As I stared longer, her dance became letters.
(from Willower: Rewriting Life After Unimaginable Loss: Chapter 11. A different ending: abracadabra)
On this day, it is a nudge to let your heart be inspired by paintings, books, music, movies, drama, e.t.c., whichever form of art draws your interest.
source: NationalToday.com
I hope you find inspiration here, in this blog, or somewhere else today (and every day, for that matter), something that draws your interest and speaks to your heart.
Please share willower.org with someone you know who may also be trying to rewrite their life after . . .
Willower.org 