So many of us walk through life on autopilot. I know I did for a while.
Art woke me up. It brought me back to life. It helped me reconnect to what brings me alive and feast on it every day.
This poem sums it up beautifully...
LOVE AFTER LOVE, DEREK WALCOTT
"The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
When you find artwork that speaks to you, that's when the magic happens.
Admiring and indulging in art, poetry and music helps you listen to yourself. It has an uncanny way of cutting through the hard outer shell that can insidiously encrust around us over time.
Because that's the version of you that you may have buried, deep down, singing out to the "you" who needs your attention.
You can watch a beautiful reading of this poem by Helena Bonham Carter below.
Let me know in the comments below how art has affected you - I'd love to know!
