I stumbled upon an observation. I don’t know where it came from. I was having lunch at a local spot with a dear friend – she is beautiful, expansive and full of wisdom herself. She is a talented painter. I related to her a thought that just came to me — that life does not happen in isolation, but rather in communion with others. Life takes shape between people. It is not centered within the individual – his or her own needs and preferences are not the point. But, rather, life happens in relationship with others.

For some reason this struck a chord within her. She started to cry, in the middle of lunch at this restaurant she wanted to try out. She explained that she had been lost within herself, trying to create the perfect self, without input from others. She had never considered that all that effort was for naught. What really mattered was connecting with others and seeing how her energy engaged with other people’s energy.

I realize that “energy” is a strange term. It seems so vague. But I do not have a better description for what intuitively spills out of a person and what others can sense about them. These are all the unspoken cues from their psyche that we pick up on.

The artist has a challenge in front of her in this regard. To a great degree, the artist has to withdraw from the bustle of the world in order to create something of quality. The focus of relationships shifts away from others and toward her craft. She can get lost if she does not confront the primacy of her chosen medium. The blank page or the bare canvas, or even the empty rehearsal space, are the elements that artists must interact with, before bringing their art into a public venue. These voids have their own power – they are what we have a dialogue with, in the beginning. Even here, within this seeming space of seclusion, the significance of the relationship still matters. We are having a conversation with something outside of ourselves, even if that “other” is inanimate.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash