“If we don’t offer ourselves to the unknown, our senses dull. Our world becomes small and we lose our sense of wonder. Our eyes don’t lift to the horizon; our ears don’t hear the sounds around us. The edge is off our experience, and we pass our days in a routine that is both comfortable and limiting. We wake up one day and find that we have lost our dreams in order to protect our days. Don’t let yourself become one of these people.”
- Kent Nerburn, Letters to My Son
Want to know the secret to being an artist unlike any artist in your niche? Stop looking for inspiration in the same place everyone else in your niche is looking for inspiration.
Part of being CHILDLIKE is having an ever renewed sense of wonder. For a child it is easier than for an adult because almost everything is new to them. Amazement and wonder are all around them because they are looking on everything with new eyes. The older we get the more we get used to our surroundings. And we get comfortable with what we know. And we stop exploring the unknown.
I’ve been reading a book about Zen for a couple weeks, and my sense of wonder has returned. My eyes are lifting again. My ears are alert. There is an edge again to my day-to-day life. A stirring is occurring in my heart. I’m seeing my own personal relationship with God and everyday life in a new refreshing way.
As artists, as humans, “We need to question that which seems to have ceased forever to astonish us.” – Gorges Perec
And sometimes the only way to question it is to see it in a totally different light. Don’t be afraid to look where no one else is looking, to peer into your own unknown and embrace it fully. You might just be surprised to find it embracing you back.
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