So many times our lives feel like they’ve been reduced to a
to-do list we’re forever trying to finish. We tear through our weeks, striving
to find a balance between doing and being, giving to others and taking care of
ourselves. Even a happy life can be reduced to a black-and-white list of things
accomplished. What if we think of life in a different way? What if we think
about our days as blank canvases, waiting for us to paint them? What if we turn
our lives into an art form, picturing each of our activities as a color?
Most of us spend a good deal of time working for the benefit
of others, or to support ourselves financially. Even if we don’t especially
enjoy our jobs, there is beauty in them, in the benefits they bring to us and
others. We can think of them as the base color of our canvases, and picture
those hours painted a favorite color. Our free time gives us a chance to add accent
colors to our base color.
Just as each artist has her own vision for her art, each
person will have her own vision for her life’s canvas: some people will want
theirs primarily filled with one color, and others will want a canvas splashed
with multiple colors. Some will gleefully spatter their canvases with bright
tones, while others will choose a more muted, serene palette. I like variety, so I’m happiest when my
paintings have multiple colors. My ideal canvas would have plenty of purple and
blue, the colors I associate with reading and writing. I’d also have strokes of
red for physical activity, green for working for my family, even some yellow
for doing nothing. (I’m not sure how a literal painting like this would look,
but my imaginary painting looks great!)
At the end of each day, when we look at our finished canvases,
what do we notice? Is our free time primarily filled with things we value? Have
we let too much work take over? Or too much mindless entertainment? What about
self-care, or acts of kindness? Do they appear? What does a week of canvases
look like? A month? A year?
We are the artists of our own lives—why don’t we paint some
masterpieces? (For more parallels between art and life, see “Artful Living: Applying the Five Es”.)
If your day was a painting, what colors would you fill your
canvas with, and what would they represent?
