Create Beauty: Making Pearls Out Of Life's Grit

By Christina Dudley

What am I choosing to say when things go wrong? How am I choosing to write the narrative of my life? Of today? Do I let a whole day be a bad day? Do I let a whole season be a bad time in my life? Can I take what is not the way I want it and make something beautiful?

My gifts are in writing and connecting with others. When I feel the struggles of life piling up within, I have found that the best relief is to write. Turn that tension into an article.

I used to see the arts as something that you go see or watch as a spectator. I now see art as an outlet to release the difficulties in life. I see it as an invitation to create beauty. When it is completed, it gives you rest and enjoyment in results of making something beautiful. It is like a deep exhale when life is trying to suffocate you.

Oysters turn an irritant in their flesh into a beautiful treasure of a pearl. The irritants in my life, if left to fester, want to grow into a force to destroy my character, relationships, and accomplishments. To have a voice that is silenced. To have a love that is turned into hatred. Instead of thriving, I can easily resort to self-protection, revenge, or some other tactic to survive. I do not want to live my life in survival mode but rather creation.

I have more to give. Much more to give than letting life drown me out. I want to respond to irritants and the surrounding negative energy by activating my ability to create beauty like a pearl. The tension of today does not have to be a sign that I am doing it wrong and should quit. Doesn’t everyday have its tensions? Therein lies the potential each day to make something beautiful.