Are you a child?

Watch me paint “Fred” in 1 minute (time lapse)

This oil painting is a self-portrait; me, through my father’s eyes, from behind a camera lens. The painting was inspired by a photo he took for a class assignment for a photography class. If you’ve not been a subscriber for long, you may not be aware that Dad died as a young man (age 37), so any connection to him is precious.

Notice I said that this is me, not “me when I was a child”. We are all the same person inside, from start to finish and beyond. Our true selves operate on intuition, emotion, spiritual energy, and a raw desire to pursue happiness. When we are children we have an easier time with this, but we don’t change into different people when we grow up. The core of us is always there.

Often our childlike unabashed wish to be loved, to be happy, and to be special is hidden deeply within us, as we’ve suffered from rejection, disappointment, and disillusionment. The things we used to want don’t roll smoothly from our hearts anymore, because we don’t want to get hurt again. We “grow up”. Or do we? Don’t we really just GIVE up, instead of grow up?

Life isn’t fair and we all get hurt. Pretending that we don’t want the same things we wanted all along isn’t going to protect us. Why not allow ourselves to be raw, vulnerable, and openly wistful; unashamed of what we want, and believing that we are special?

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