When the Pupils Dilate

"You are one decision away from a totally different life."

Life is so short. There are so very few things that can make us happy, and yet we instead constantly pursue the things that squelch this very joy. We choose the things that force us to dread waking up every morning, that dull the enjoyment of eating meals, and even that make the sun seem to shine less brightly. Why?

Because we were told to.

"Art is a hobby."
"You need a stable job."
"You're being selfish."
"You can't support a family like that."
"This is just a phase."

Listen closely as I speak for the thousands of unspoken voices battling depression, anxiety, and fear because they are not allowed to choose to do what they love each and every day:

This is not a phase.

This is who we are. Why is it selfish to be happy? Every person should be doing what they love whether it be engineering or dancing. If you daydream about another profession, another idea, or another life, then that is what you love. You were born to live that life, not this life you were forced to fit into. So many people go to work but only wish they could get back home to their hobby, because that is what they truly love. You do not have to live like that. When did hobbies become the secrets of who you really are? The question is simple...

What makes you smile? What makes your face light up? What makes your pupils dilate? Love is a chemical response in the brain, and when that feeling appears, the pupils dilate. A very simple bodily function to a unforgettable and magnificent feeling. Does it happen when you talk about your favorite book? A movie concept? This song that makes you want to dance? The colors you want to use for your next painting? A single lyric in your favorite poem? Watch for the pupils and when they dilate. You will know who a person really is by what they love.

Find that thing that makes you happy and do not let it go. It is part of who you are. It is part of your story. If you do not know what makes you happy then think about this:

Have you ever woken up so overwhelmingly ecstatic about something?

Then remember that. Hold on to that. Because if you chase that very thing, the odds are that you will wake up with that feeling again, as you were meant to. No longer do you have to be unhappy just to please someone else, to conform to society or peer pressure, or to do what you thought you were supposed to love. You are free to wake up in the morning with a smile once more.

You were born to be happy so do not let anyone else tell you otherwise.

When do your pupils dilate?

What Are You Fighting For?

"When Winston Churchill was asked to cut arts funding in favor of the war effort, he simply replied, 'Then what are we fighting for?'"

Turn on the news. It's hard to not find tragedy. People are hurting, looking for peace--looking for any sort of joy.

They need to be inspired now more than ever. They need something that makes them smile.

Why can't you provide that something?

This is a world where one event shakes the entire earth and brings us all together, not as nations but as brothers and sisters of humanity. When the world is shaking, something sturdy is needed. In the wake of tragedy, people need to hope. Why can't you be the one to inspire someone with hope?

In these times, it is easy to lose the focus on what is really important and what really brings people together. Winston Churchill understood that better than most.

So why are the arts so important in times like these? Not only do they provide a much needed escape, a paradisaical respite from war, but they combat war. Art provides hope, joy, and love, everything that war is not.

Why?

We're human, and art is a part of us. It's who we are. We are either Creators or Decimators. We bring art, or we bring war. The choice is ever present, and the struggle is ever constant.

What are you fighting for?

Down the Rabbit Hole

"We're all a little mad here..."

Art has a funny way of appearing in the most unexpected circumstances.

I know from experience that one wrong note plucked on a guitar can lead to a whole new song. One out of place line can lead to a entirely different poem. These are not mistakes. They are living, breathing forms of your story, and they are leading you to something beautiful.

Follow them.

Do I sound crazy? Maybe it's because I dared to open those parts of myself and followed those emotions and thoughts down the rabbit hole. There, I discovered a feeling I could never quite express in words. Not only that, but I also felt joy in creating something that was entirely my own. I went down the rabbit hole and followed that wrong note until I discovered a hidden part of my own story.

What would have happened if I had fixed the mistake?

Play a chord until the lyrics come out of your mouth. Put a song on repeat until the music affects your body. Hold a brush until a drop of paints falls onto the canvas.

And follow it down the rabbit hole.

Daring to be Impulsive

When we were young children, we cried when we were sad, we laughed when we were happy, and we screamed when we were angry. We voiced our emotions whenever we felt like it. We followed our impulses, because at the time, that was all we knew. We were spontaneous. At the time, it was okay.

But then we grew up. And suddenly, feeling something was wrong. Very early on, we were taught to hide what we felt. We were taught to silence our desire to follow impulses. We still felt them, but we could not follow them. We could not longer cry, no longer scream--we did not stop feeling, no. But we were not supposed to reveal what we felt. So what happened to those feelings, those instincts?

They were bottled up. Every impulse to feel something was muffled, because we had to "act normal." Without realizing it, we were taught that being an adult meant that you cannot be spontaneous.

If this is true, then I do not want to be an adult.

But what if there was an escape from the pressures of growing old? What if there was a way to cry, laugh, and scream without judgment? All you need is a place to direct those impulses.

You see, art is not always premeditated. A feeling is felt, and then that feeling is followed. What follows next is a masterpiece. Every great songwriter, painter, or writer created something beautiful, because they first felt something. If you do not allow yourself to feel certain things, then how can you express them? And if you do not express them, then how can you reach someone who is experiencing the very same thing?

Following impulses is simpler than you think. The next time you have a reasonable idea, act on it. That very impulse you might have silenced could be the greatest adventure of your life.

Therefore, I will continue to follow my own impulses and choose to find spontaneity in every day. Art is outside the box; why can't you be too?

So I will choose to randomly sit out here under the stars, past midnight, playing on my guitar, because that is what makes me happy.

And who knows...that one impulse that led me to this spot might be the reason that this song I'm now writing touches someone's life or makes them laugh.

All because I felt something, and I followed that feeling.

Do you dare?

Who's the Star?

"I once took this English class in college, and we had been going over a brief, very literature and "English" way of seeing a worldview of love. One thing that really stuck out to me was one of my professors points and more importantly a video and quote he used to illustrate his point. My professors third point in his lecture was the 'requisite of love - the royal law of love'. He went on from there to explain that to love someone one you must be able to recognize our sameness, and to have a loving appreciation of uniqueness (how vastly different we all are).  He then clicked his laptop and this quote appeared on the projector in front of me and what I read hit me right in the very center of my heart:

 "Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real." Iris Murdoch

Oh, ouch! It hit me after I read it a second time how very guilty I am of committing this crime too. What Murdoch, in this simple one sentence, conveys is that until you take the spotlight off of yourself and realize you are not the star of the universe; until you do this you will not be able to love. And yes Iris Murdoch is right, how 'difficult of a realization' this is. I think to some degree we all see ourselves as the stars in our own movies. And that the rest of the people in our life play principle characters and may very well win Oscars in this life for best supporting actress or best supporting actor. However, we are the star! Yet it did ever occur to you that the person you passed in the hallway at work or school, just once (you'll never see them again) thinks the same very thing about themselves? To each other we're simply extras in each others movie...yet we're starring in our own movie. I'd never realized how, without even trying, self centered I was. How could I be so caught up in whats happening around me that I didn't stop to notice the 'extras' in 'my movie'?! Everyone has a story, and their story affects how they act day to day, and that story deserves to be heard. I think that's what true love is, or maybe this chips away at what true love is. It's kinda like that line from Les Miserables,

"To love another person is to see the face of God"

 Because of this simple general education class I now have a brand new perspective on people that I pass in the hallway's, the person I sit next to at a stoplight. What's their story? What have they been through? And if given the chance would I love them enough to listen to their story? I think that's what true love is, or definitely a big part, not focusing on yourself and your life but seeing the 'extras' in your life and making them 'the stars' of the show."

 --Maggie Quick, Guest Contributor