Living An Artful Life: Figuring Out What is Really Big and What is Small

Does life make you a little crazy? Are you over stressed and pre-occupied? Me too, sometimes. That is precisely when I need to intentionally surround myself with beauty.

When my children were very young, and I was stressed out, {ahem, often!} my husband would watch the kids for me so I could just go “be.” I would go to a local coffee shop just for the atmosphere, and sit in the silence. It was calm and lovely. Then I’d peruse an antique shop and linger over the old handmade lace and chintzy tea cups. I’d walk through an art gallery admiring the paintings. I’d drive to the ocean and just watch the waves. My two hours alone taking in the beauty created by others was like a jump start to my emotional well being. Beauty rejuvenates somehow and solitude– especially when you have little ones–is so important. It’s NOT selfish to have a few hours to yourself!  Don’t fall into the “martyr mother” mindset.

Well, we can’t get out every day, so we need to take action to intentionally slow ourselves down. We need a “mini-retreat.” For me, it means living an artful life.

What is an artful life? 

I think it’s different for each person in each season, but it’s simply doing something small, creative, that adds beauty to your space or that takes time to notice the beauty all around you.

Notice the creation, and thank the Creator when you see a sunrise or sunset or see the waves crashing against the rocks covering you with a salty cold spray. Throw open the windows on a frosty morning just to breathe in new air and to hear the neighbor’s rooster announcing the day. Slow down long enough to notice an intricate spider’s web glinting in the sunlight or to smell a wildflower on a walk with your children?

Why are we always in such a rush again? We’re doing more things more efficiently than ever, for more hours a day than ever, getting less sleep than normal and we’re still looking for ways to do more? Why?

And then you stop and wonder: Why do some people seem to adore life and others seem to just get by?

I believe the difference comes when we slow down long enough to notice and appreciate what we have. Simple gifts. The beauty all around us. Reading an uplifting, noble idea, some lovely truth from scripture or uncommon wisdom and letting the concept ruminate in our mind until it becomes our own. Letting our mind dwell on some new piece of information, being alone with our own thoughts, formulating and reasoning about it, instead of constantly taking in. {I always envision the internet to be like a flow of information similar to water coming out of a fire-hose. We used to drink out of the garden hose; but I imagine this information rushing and gushing at high pressure, into our open mouths, suffocating us with the sheer volume. So not healthy. We need time to take things in drop by drop.}

An “Art-filled” life is not about filling your house with the latest Pinterest craze or measuring your home with the latest copy of Home Beautiful.  It’s simply about appreciating what is in front of you, slowing down, putting on the breaks and muting the noise for a few minutes of solitude and reflection. It’s about creating a space that invites others to do the same. Crafting a home that encourages creativity and dialogue about what is being made. Living side by side doing life together. Noticing together. 

Anne Shirley called it “drinking in” the beauty. Creating beauty can be as simple as putting a small vase of flowers on the windowsill.

Jo March in Little Women lived an artful life by tucking a red geranium into her button hole.

Flowers on a window sill, a lit candle on a night stand, a chintzy china tea cup on a tray. Simple expressions.

Today we have so much at our disposal.

Beautiful, free music via Pandora.

Gorgeous art books from the library.

Inexpensive things that expose your kids to great minds and masters of paintings from another era.

It might take the form of painting{here’s what’s kept me busy lately}, crafting, cooking together, or making lovely lunches for your kids {hello, have you ever googled “Bento Boxes”? Just do it. So intriguing!} taking a walk in the fall weather or reading together.

Fall’s approaching and there’s something about it that compels me to want to appreciate the beauty all around me. I’m not sure if it’s the fast dropping temperatures of fall, the gorgeous display of leaves, super tart freshly picked apples or chunky woolen sweaters, but something is awakened in the senses in fall.

My friends, I’m ready to notice “the beautiful.” I want to linger over the insignificant things with my kids, the everyday tender mercies of our God.

It might take the form of sketching a small wood mouse with my 10 year old after reading Secrets of the Woods, because today’s lesson is that in order to draw well, you must notice the small details.

It’s sometimes hard to figure out what is big and what is small, isn’t it?