Since childhood, I have had the overwhelming sensation that the physical world is not the real world, but more like a stop at a tourist center along the journey to someplace far more wonderful. I used to sit in my swing as a little girl and look up into the clouds. I had never been to church at the time, nor had I received any spiritual teaching, per se. Yet, I knew, was convinced at my very core, that there was more to life than I could see or hear. It was like I had amnesia and had forgotten something important that I once knew. I tried to draw this other place, but I could never quite get it right. Once as a child I did a painting a cemetery with spiritual [they looked kind of like angels] beings above a cloud barrier. I was trying to show that other place which haunted me in my dreams, that stayed in my mind. My mother told me that my painting was morbid, yet that picture comforted me.

As an adult I came to the conclusion that I had been right all along. I became convinced that we are truly spiritual beings, but are momentarily in a physical vehicle, that allows us to travel about while we are on visitation to this physical realm. I think of an old gospel song I heard as a teenager, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.” So, true. That is exactly how I feel, how I have felt my entire life. I am a foreigner in this temporal reality. I’m from some place else. One of these days I will go home again, but in the meantime, I’m on a mission here. I have to leave my drop in the ocean, follow my bliss, be true to my calling. Define it with whatever terms you like, but I know that my life has a purpose and I must be true to that purpose and part of that purpose is to encourage others to be still, hear their hearts, seek God and live according to their purpose.

Everything in nature has a purpose and teaches us that all things have a purpose, so why not us? So, today I encourage you, if there is music in your heart, set it free. If there is a dance in your soul, give it legs. If there are words in you spirit, write them down. If you long to heal, set out on a course to become a doctor or a nurse. If you have the gift to lead and inspire, consider teaching. There is a purpose for your natural bent. Your desire may be the confirmation of the destination. Do not compare yourself to those the world declares successful. I do not have a best seller, but I am a successful writer, because I write what is in my heart and I give the money from my work to the causes I believe in. Success does not always equal fame and fortune. In the world where I’m from success means you have followed your heart and heard from spirit.

Silas House is an amazing Kentucky writer whom I have had the honor of meeting at a writer’s workshop a couple of years ago. Although, I seriously doubt he would remember me. I often like to visit his blog and just read. So, I’m posting a quote from him. I’ve often felt that it was the job of the artist in this world to show people a glimpse of another world, the spiritual world. But that’s enough from me. Please enjoy the quotes from Silas below and then go visit his blog. It’s a great place to stop and ponder.

Art, by illuminating the truth, sheds light on how we can be better people. Nearly everything I ever learned about being a better person, and more specifically a better Christian, I learned from books and poems. I am thinking of novels like The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, which taught me that the true path to God is to recognize Him and honor Him every single day. In that book the character Shug Avery says, “Everything want to be loved. Us sing and dance, make faces and give flower bouquets trying to be loved. People think pleasing God is all God cares about. But any fool living in the world can see He’s always trying to please us back.” When you walk through the world every single day noticing everything, you are honoring God. And that is what any artist must do to be a truly good artist. There is no way that an artist can walk through the day without seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting, and experiencing everything they can. It is not a great leap to make this a part of one’s religiosity or spirituality.

….I believe God lives in everything. Not just churches and cathedrals. Not just in trees and leaves of grass and flowers. But even in—especially in—the leads of pencils, the lenses of cameras, the tips of paintbrushes, the pirouette of a ballerina, the rich alto of a singer, the curve of a sculptor’s cut, in books and poems and music. He made all of these things and made them a gift to us, so let us all go out into the world with the hope of giving back this gift.

http://silashouseblog.blogspot.com/