Gratitude Practice 2021 Day 364: “One Great Whole” and “Forever in Many Directions”
Feb 6, 2021
Recently, I discovered the artwork of Julia Blake and fell deep and fast and hard. Really love her sense of color and shape and composition. If you know me at all you know that l'm a total sucker for bright splashy poppies and I'm forever drawn to abstract colorful florals so naturally I love Julia's work. But...THIS painting...of THIS tree... made up of ever connected ever tiny Venn diagrams...THIS painting and concept...THIS year....boy oh boy does this piece of artwork speak to my heart and soul. Here is the artist statement provided by Julia Blake: "This tree represents God the Mother and each leaf, overlapping as Venn Diagrams, are people and the way we connect to each other. The leaves are bare canvas (not paint) to represent how we only connect when we are authentic and show who we really are and the white is a subtraction. I scrubbed off the pale blue wash that is the background of the painting. The bold stroke around the entire tree represents a safety and protection from the metaphorical storms of life when we are united with God and others."
Whenever a piece of artwork hits me like this I'm always curious about the backstory. What inspired the creator who created the thing that inspires such inspiration in me? After a little research, I learned that Julia Blake titled this painting "One Great Whole.” Kinda really love the idea that all of the singular tiny aspects of life are so easily and quickly interconnected, overlapping and related to each other in one way or another AND the need for us to be real and really real and authentic in order to see and experience growth. And that because of the interconnected-ness of all things, even and perhaps especially, many aspects of life are bound to contradict...still connected but in conflict. Still working together, relying on each other and needing each other but often in opposition. I’ve been thinking a lot about the power of Venn diagrams and now I'm seeing little Venn diagrams...everywhere. Two or more connected ideas that stand alone independent and yet at some level are endlessly connected. Seems like so much of life these days is best explained by making a few Venn diagrams and I just keep thinking there is something really powerful about these silly life circles and connections. Grateful for this new framework for organizing and making sense of both the multiple compliments AND the mighty contradictions that life just seems to produce.
After a little more digging, I learned that Julia Blake was deeply inspired by a fellow artist, Annie Blake, a young mother and community leader who recently lost her life after a fast moving, punishing unforgiving bout with cancer. I don’t know either of these women personally but I am inspired by their love and appreciation for life’s mighty Venn diagrams and the art they have so beautifully created. Laced throughout their writing and their art is a powerful phrase that continues to run through my head. Tonight, grateful for the powerful concept they have shared... "Forever in Many Directions." BOOM!
Grateful for the vision and vulnerability of the artwork of Julia Blake and Annie K. Blake. Grateful for this powerful painting and for what it has taught me. Grateful for the multiple Venn diagrams that make up life in general, for the many Venn diagrams that make up MY life, for the many Venn diagrams that make my life totally beautiful AND completely bananas both at the same time. Grateful for the endless paradox of the human experience. Grateful for the duality found in each of us...that we are equal parts devil and delight, hero and heretic, madness and myrrh, inspiring and infuriating...each person, opportunity and experience is equal parts connected and disconnected all of the time....and that a sacred divinity holds it all together. Grateful for the need to create and not find life balance. Grateful that there are always at least two but more like two thousand ways to look at, consider or approach any situation and I'm grateful to be building new muscles to embrace new perspectives and approaches. And forever grateful for the endless interconnected-ness of it all.
I am learning how to become more grateful for the complexities, for the layers, for the frustration, for the discomfort and for the unknown unexplored dimensions. I am learning how to become grateful for the smack your head on the desk contradictions that seem to bloom like dandelions in Springtime. I am learning to become grateful for the difference and indifference, for the friction that agitates and motivates and disappoints and inspires and demands real change. I am grateful to be learning how to take action before action takes hold over me. I am grateful to be learning how to identify patterns and connections that I was not ready or willing or able to understand before. Identifying and honoring these these new connections has everything to do with a growing sense of wholeness and newness and me-ness.
So very grateful for how the last year has helped me better appreciate and understand "One Great Whole" and "Forever In Many Directions." Grateful for this image created by Julia Blake and for the motivating phrase practiced by the late Annie Blake that to me perfectly communicates that real growth and strength comes from and because of the collective connections as much from the contradictions. We need both. We are built from both. We grow from both. And I’m learning how to be grateful for both more and more each day.
