art interrupts life.

If you came to my house, you'd see an eclectic mix of colors. When I moved in, a friend asked me excitedly, "So what kind of colors are you thinking about?" "Oh! I already picked them! They're great...it's like a reddish, yellow, hot pink, green, orange, brown and black deal!" She responded with a grin and both eyebrows raised, "Oh! Really...hm". I could tell her mind was trying to figure out on which planet those colors would be found in a room together. "It's tasteful, promise." I reassured her. (She's since visited and given the nod of approval.) There are simply too many colors in life to settle down with just one or two!

The old adage says, "art imitates life". For me...art - variety, imagination, possibility - interrupts life. It sweeps over me and beckons my attention from the practical, even the necessary, and it lures me into a world of imagination and fascination. Where colors can spend time together regardless of their "matching" status. Where status-quo is negated to accommodate beauty. Where a blank sheet of paper is a brand new opportunity to imitate my Creator, by attempting to "create".  And where I feel truly free to just "be". 

It's the reason I started this blog. 

I have too many thoughts that can't find a place in everyday life. They just...don't fit. 

And yet, here I am. Wondering why I would convey half of what I'm thinking on here because much of it seems to bear no practical relevance. At some point, when I realized you couldn't make a living just thinking, making words sound pretty and appealing, or coming up with new concepts about faith and life - I did away with all of the above for myself. I packed all those things neatly in a box marked "hobbies" and put it in the back of the closet; in favor of school-books, paperwork, bill-paying and washing dishes. And I lost some of myself. I lost a very important part of what brings me joy in everyday life. 

Part of life is questioning. Pondering. Thinking. Musing. Exploring. Always respectfully, of course. But the kid who constantly asks, "Why?" may never really stop asking. They'll re-phrase, re-think, re-visit, maybe even squelch the urge to ask, but it will probably always be there. And, if led in the right direction, those questions can produce answers with life-changing results. 

But, before answers, and before life-changing epiphanies, questions must emerge. And generally, with them, an uncomfortable time of searching and uncertainty. In better words:  "Reason can answer the questions, but imagination has to ask them." 

There was a time in my life where I nearly went crazy asking too many questions. Those of us with a propensity toward inquisitiveness must also be tempered "investigators". There are parts of faith, of life, that we need not question. The fun part is everything else is open for negotiation! So, as my imagination wanders and as the artist in me is awakened. As I begin again to ponder, challenge accepted norms, and re-create, expect some unexpected questions to arise on this blog. The first of which, coming soon...