Don't

Don’t go looking for mattress sales.

Search out mystery.

Don’t spend time on your looks.

Look for the awe to be found in any living thing.

Don’t worry what others think.

Worry about the sacredness being sucked from the world.

Don’t champion your uniqueness.

Tap the power of the commonly shared.

Don’t worry about the dollars in your pocket.

Worry about the compassion in your heart.

Don’t long for Cyber Monday.

Live for little daily acts of kindness.

Fuck

Fuck the overpriced celebrities and their comfort and privilege.

Fuck the billionaires swimming in more money than they can ever spend or give away.

Fuck the princes and princesses whining about their privacy.

Fuck the slimy politicians who’ve forgotten their constituents.

Instead

Celebrate the child whose leg is blown off in war, but still finds hope in life.

Celebrate the black woman who fought against fear and poverty to get a college degree.

Celebrate the fireman who gave his life to save another.

Celebrate the soldier who will carry the wounds of war for all his life.

Celebrate the doctor who left his comfortable practice to bring sight to thousands of African children.

Celebrate the ordinary persons who do a million extraordinary things each day.

Mysterious

I used to think of the mysterious and the spiritual as ineffable, as something out there above it all. We had to work toward it or search for it beyond us. I don’t believe that any more. I believe that, in fact, the mysterious and the spiritual are intimately linked and are intrinsic to our inner human condition.

That may seem odd to say in this deeply technical and scientific world, in this world we experience so materially. But as humans we have achieved the most when we tackled mystery head on, in a fearless and creative way. And we have reached great heights when we were driven by the fire of inner spirit.

Indigenous tribes found god in spirit everywhere because they experienced life in everything around them. When we are disconnected from nature and others, we find god and spirit nowhere. But we fulfill our humanity when we see mystery and the spirit on fire in ourselves.

The artist said

And the artist said to the God of Art: No way in hell you’re going to tell me what to make art about. I’m the artist, and I do what I want.

But the God of Art has infinite patience with such adolescent behavior. Eventually the artist dived into the world and found their passion, and believed again in the God of Art.

The God of Art

And the God of Art said: I have set a beautiful, complex, ever-changing and even horrific world at your feet. Before you were born, you were each tasked with being an artist and given a piece of this creation to discover, to tend to, and to reveal. In this way, all of my creation was taken in and given back to the world in glory.