This quote can be traced back to Hippocrates, and is one of my favorites. After 61 years of living it, I have come to understand all of my life as art, my unique expression and perspective, colored by love and loss and light and dark. Now when I look around at life, I marvel at the moments unfolding with a grace that is mostly astonishing, and, well, art-full. It’s as if there is a silent wondrous soundtrack, music that guides my steps … and dances me.
Yes, the art is long…grappling, strutting, fretting…. stretching beyond where we thought we could, life tumbles the gem of our soul into something brilliant and fine. Faceted like no other, refracting and reflecting those around us, this jewel of self is our precious gift…to us, from us. Divine, profane, eternal, fragile, and so beautiful.
If we have been blessed by any will to self-reflection, we can see that what starts as knowledge becomes wisdom in the living of it (and so often recognized in retrospect!). This alchemy is pure art; molded and honed and tended to, a well-lived life is a craft indeed. Our individuality, our unique brilliant hearts, are the gift we give to life….and what an amazing way to give thanks for the life we are given…short as it is.
The practice of Yoga is surely an art, dynamic and personal, devotional, humble. With Yoga we have the opportunity to polish this gem that we are, to look into our shining dark depths and have them look back at us. It is there that we can harvest the creative raw material that becomes the medium of our art, the stuff of our genius. Wow – I am so grateful to the Yoga tradition, and this amazing mystery that is Life!