Identity

Being able to create is wonderful, especially for those of us who are artists.  Everyone has the ability to create.  We create everyday, whether it is in the form of a painting, a photograph, or a delicious meal for our family.

Another thing we create is our identity.   Yesterday, I heard someone talk about negative events that happen in our life and how they can affect our identity.  He said we can acknowledge the event as a significant chapter in our life, but for our own benefit we should not allow it to create a negative identity.  

Many of us, myself included, have had terrible things happen in our lives.  Without fully realizing it, I had, in the past, allowed these events to create my identity.  People treat you badly, and you start believing that the whole world always treats you badly.  You never got to do what you always wanted to do, and that's the way it will always be because that is who you are. 

I personally believe the most horrible thing that can happen to a person is to lose a child.  I would not blame a person if they spent the rest of their life identifying themself as the destroyed person who had lost a child.  

I know someone who, many years ago, did lose a child.  He said he had his grieving time, and then, one day, he knew it was time to start over and go on, believing that one day he would see his child again.

I did not know this person when this happened.  However, when I met him, years later, I would never have know that this most horrible of events had happened to this man.  He is kind and thoughtful, giving and with a wicked sense of humor.  Not a streak of the bitterness and resentment I believe I would have had.  This is a person that accepted the death of his child as something terrible that happened to him, but he did not let it create his identity.

Allowing myself to be the artist I always knew I was meant to be has been difficult and a long time coming.  But, if we do not like who we allowed ourself to become, it is in our power to start over and create a new identity.  

If you look at your life and do not like what you have allowed to create your identity, then join me as we start over, and create the person we know we were always meant to be.  Just as we use our creative talents to create a new work of art, let us also use the talents within us to create a new and wonderful identity.

Joy in creating,

Carol B.