Emerge

Today’s drawing of Mary Magdalene

Some days are good and some are not so good, but drawing Mary Magdalene every day keeps me faithful.

I have to sit with myself and find inside me a drawing and some coherent words whether I feel like it or not. There is no valid excuse to stop. And this is how it should be when we really want something.

It’s both a small and grand gesture. It’s small because a simple drawing is not so hard to do, and sometimes a line drawing is the simplest form of offering. Words can be anything, and are like steps. One after the other make a sentence, a paragraph, a little essay containing at least one idea. But over a year, it takes willpower. I often ask myself why didn’t I do it before, and also why am I doing this? It doesn’t matter. The only reason to do it is to think, to expand, to cultivate a strange spirituality.

It is better to write when inspired, the magic is felt deeply and happiness grows in your heart and sometimes explodes. When not inspired, it feels like what the pilgrims who walk the long Camino de Santiago describe. When you think you don’t have one more step in you, you realize you have arrived at the shelter for the night.

Both actions are simply a reminder that what is within, is immense. That we can grow our stregth to unexpected heights. We can, if we want to. And often, it’s not important enough, so we don’t.

Twenty years from now, I aspire to be the kind of older person who is young and vital, who wants to live and foster life. I aspire to be really alive. Even more than today. I am giving life to myself.

The antidote to death is to cultivate life. To create beauty. To work on our dreams. To pray with action. To live within the joy of imagination. To guide yourself into yourself. And emerge from the cocoon as a beautiful butterfly.