A Fresh Canvas Every Twenty-Four Hours

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‘Before a painter begins a new work, she take preparatory steps to get ready. She has probably made preliminary sketches of the scene she is trying to capture. She mixes her pigments to achieve the right colors. She has also prepared the canvas with a fixative coating so that the paint will adhere. All of this takes time. Of course, we don’t see the preparations when we look at her completed work. We only see the entire vision. And as artist Helen Frankenthaler once commented, “A picture that is beautiful or that works looks as if it was all made at one stroke. I don’t like to see the trail of a brushstroke or a drip of paint.”

Preparatory steps are necessary in all the arts. They are also necessary in life if we want to live authentically. Every twenty-four hours we are given a fresh canvas to prime, to make ready for the vision. Quieting our minds in meditation, carving out time to dream and express ourselves with our daily dialogue and illustrated discovery journal, becoming aware of our true preferences, slowing down to concentrate on completing one task at a time- these are the preparatory steps we need to take if we wish to experience the contentment.

But our preparations won’t have been in vain. For when we are in the flow of life, savoring the moment, the brush strokes don’t show. Today, don’t rush through your inner preparations as you get ready to set down a piece of your soul on life’s canvas.’ -Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance A Daybook of Comfort and Joy