Finding Faith: Set Your Life On Fire

Hello friends!

Well I did something a little crazy this week. I burned one of my paintings. Under the full moon no less. No I didn't hate the painting and want to destroy it, and I'm not superstitious. It was a painting of me, of my body. When I started the painting I had a plan as to how it was going to look. I ended up changing it because I was listening to the advice of someone else. It looked good, but never really looked like I had originally planned. I was recently pondering changing it, adding some hands to make it look like my body was an instrument being played by someone.

All of this got me thinking, thinking about burning my painting...on the full moon. As I lit it on fire and watched the flames with the light of the moon in the background I pondered why I felt the need to burn this painting. I realized I wasn't destroying anything, I was releasing something. Releasing my attachments to my own judgements of my body, of the opinions of others about my body and taking back my own power. I was releasing attachments over my "creation" and the idea that it needed to be anything other than the act of creating. Creating a painting for creation sake, to learn something about myself, and then letting it go. It was incredibly liberating. I don't know if it was a coincidence or not, but the next day I felt lighter, I felt at ease in my own body. I have not been feeling that way at all lately.

Here is a picture of the painting if you are curious...