Water Lilies, Claude Monet, Musée de l’Orangerie
Near the end of his life, Claude Monet was nearly blind. Mourning the deaths of his son and wife, he painted his crowning masterpiece, a series of water lilies created on a colossal scale, eight paintings between 20 and 50 feet long. He donated them to the French people in hopes they would offer peace and healing after the devastation of WWI. France built the Musée de l’Orangerie to permanently display the paintings for all to enjoy.
Near the end of his life, Beethoven was nearly deaf, having battled the continuing loss of hearing most of his adult life. He was inspired to compose his crowning masterpiece, the Ninth Symphony, from his passionate belief in the ideals of universal brotherhood and unity. His combination of choral and symphonic music had never been done before, and his finale, Ode to Joy, continues to uplift us today.
How can you paint when you can’t see or compose when you can’t hear? These two giants had practiced their craft for so long and so passionately that they had merged with their art. The human expression and the human spirit had become one.
I am drawn to do the same. No, I don’t mean I will ever have a museum built in my honor or create a work that will last for centuries. But I feel the spiritual impulse to explore, discover, and use my natural gifts. I can use my unique God-given qualities to become thoroughly me, unreserved, unembarrassed, blossoming into the full expression of my potential, not as a trip of the ego, but as the fulfillment of Spirit.
Our gifts are not all grand artistic works. They include every large and small aspect of our humanity: warmth in relationships, intellectual insight, moral judgment, quiet patience, humor in the face of adversity, and a thousand other shades of the human palette. We each have a unique fingerprint of characteristics we can express to become fully ourselves.
Something miraculous happens when we step out of the shell of our personality and freely inhabit our original being. Our essence shines, illuminating the ordinary. A transmission occurs that creates connection with others, pulling them toward their best selves. We see it strikingly in great works of art, but these moments of illumination happen whenever we act from our essence.
Years ago, I visited the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris. I expected to be wowed, but I was not prepared for the stunning effect Monet’s panels would have on me. I sat for a long time, looking at a single painting. My body softened. I was overwhelmed by the beauty captured in such simple strokes. I felt a power emanating from the painting that penetrated me.
But something happened that moved me even more. A man came in with his daughter, maybe ten years old. She stepped into the room and stopped. I watched her expression as she looked up. Her eyes opened wide, and an astonished look crept across her face. The corners of her mouth turned up into a smile. It was an expression of pure, innocent joy.
Then I looked at the father. He was not looking at the paintings, he was looking at his daughter, following the slow change of her expressions. He was smiling, enjoying her enjoyment. A circle of beauty flowed through us – from artist to painting, to daughter, to father. And to me. What moved us was not just great art, something else was afoot. We were connected by the transmission of one person’s total expression of his singular slice of humanity.
In the truest sense, Monet was not painting lilies, or water, or even light. Monet had so fully internalized his sense of self and world, he had found a way to paint joy.
I want to do the same. Not through painting, that was Monet’s essence. But I want to fully embody this beautiful mosaic of a human package I have been gifted. For each of us, our individual expression is God’s expression, our small piece of the cosmic puzzle that we inhabit briefly and that will never come again.
We are all being called to participate in the unfolding of creation, to add the colors only we can bring. Something miraculous is waiting to shine through us.
What goodness will flow from our actions? What transmission will ripple out to resonate in the hearts of others? No one knows until we act. The world is drawing us forward, eager to see what we will bring.
For inspiration, watch this flash mob orchestra play Ode to Joy. Beauty moves the soul.