Third value – AUTHENTICITY

I alluded to my efforts to live an authentic life in my previous blog on sustainability. To live an authentic life, to strike a balance between expectation and reality, is the most joyful way to live. I find it’s not easy to maintain ‘upright and steady’ however, and I often find myself staggering to the horizon, with a sense of seeing only a fragment of the whole. I forgive myself when I remember that the history of our species is awash with learning and forgetting, then relearning our own elemental truth.

So where does that leave my creative journey? Well, in general, it often takes an age to create anything. I think a lot; too much probably…but eventually it leads to action, and hopefully my art possessing the original and inherent authority of my artistic intent. The resulting work, an original product of aesthetic expression.

I joined a lovely bunch of artists on an artists walk recently. Artist Richard Bracken took us on a gentle, meandering walk around one of the Abriachan Forest Trust community woodland trails and shared a little of his processes and his work. For me, walking and connecting with other artists helps me to focus my own energies, and bit by bit I add to the character and detail of ‘next’…

One of the Story Sticks made by Richard Bracken. Photo by me.

Speaking of next, my final blog in this mini series will follow soon. Consider reading some of my other posts before I discuss GRATITUDE…although I cannot quite decide if gratitude is a virtue, or a value…maybe you could offer your thoughts when you read my blog about it…