Sometimes Brokenness Gives Birth To Transformation And Wisdom
“And one day she discovered that she was fierce, and strong, and full of fire, and that not even she could hold herself back because her passion burned brighter than her fears” – Mark Anthony
The desire for the extraordinary and unexpected, starts with being curious. Being curious sends you down new roads, exploring and learning, which in turn transforms you. At that moment you have this choice. To go down the road of having a “pity party” of why you – or getting curious about “why you”. You never know what you are capable of doing, until your “being” is tested. How would you spend your time, while recovering from brain surgery and cancer treatments?
“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new” – Socrates
A friend of mine created an amazing piece of art. He posted on his Facebook page photos of it hanging in an art gallery. It was his first piece accepted in an art gallery. The picture is of a Nile crocodiles eye and he did it with the stick part of the q-tip one dot at a time. It is 6 ft long and 2 ft high. It looks like it has real scales around the eye. Almost like stones laid in the painting. The eye itself is so realistic.
“Ruin is a gift. Ruin is the road to transformation” – Elizabeth Gilbert
His painting is much larger and more detailed but I had to reduce the size and detail in order to include it. It is an amazing demonstration of focusing on making one small change at a time. Over time, those small changes will add up to a big transformation. One dip of paint, one dot upon one dot, until something amazing emerges.
Transformation literally means going beyond your form. Imagine how many individual dots it takes to fill in that much space. The transformation of making all of those little dots into this painting, also transformed him. He is now cancer free and what is so amazing is that 90% of the people who have the cancer he had do not make it.
“Experience isn’t what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you” – Aldous Huxley
His cancer brought pain, but it also brought gifts. Viewed through one lens it was a ruin to his life as he knew it. Viewed through another lens, it showed him through transformation how to live the life of his dreams.
“We are so afraid to change careers, to end relationships, to outgrown people or places – and that’s just growth. To me, choosing to go toward the cracking in order to keep expanding is the only way. The only way to get out of pain is to go through it. Pain is information” – Sophia Bush
Happiness comes from the value you bring, the thrill of creative achievement, and a pulsating desire which transcends life. James could have been consumed with fighting for his life. He could have been angry at the unfairness of life. He could have been frustrated by the long recovery period. But instead he chose to focus on this painting, and this painting in turn worked on him.
He told me that it was a wake up call to really live his life fully. To stop spending his life at work and neglecting the rest of the life that he should have been living. To think that he spent most of his life not working as an artist is such a waste of talent. Even the picture of the painting grabs you and makes you look at it. We all can learn from his story. Don’t be afraid to pour yourself into your gifts and talents. To allow them expression. To put them out into the world, so that others can experience them. To be “all in” for your dreams.
“This very moment, if you are living totally, all concern for the future disappears” – Osho
Transformation is truly about how you handle each and every moment as it appears. Just like filling in all of that space with dots of paint and creating a masterpiece. Focus on the one thing you can do in each moment.
“There is no other greater ecstasy, than to know who you are” – Osho
Life can’t work for you, when you don’t show up as the authentic you. You become the “authentic” you when you listen to the wisdom of your soul and like the caterpillar, shed the parts of you that no longer fit who you are becoming. So live in each moment, and see where the transformations take you!
“The only limits you have are the limits you believe” – Wayne Dyer
