This year hasn't been easy for me or those closest to me. I grew up with a girl like no other. A seasoned artist of all trades and who has creativity pouring from her head to toe. My best friend was already in a valley when her childhood house burnt down. Just like that. She called me one day and took me over to see it.
She kept it moving: in between 3 jobs, 5 classes, an upcoming fashion line, and endless engagements.
Some time later, she called me and asked if I wanted to hoopdance for a video. To meet at her "old house" .
I arrived at her house, still charred from the fire, to a party with balloons, string lights, and a DJ collective. That night I watched my friend of nearly 8 years turn one of the most catastrophic life events into something beautiful that everyone could enjoy and all so that she could help out her friend from school. She made art from her tragedy.
As my mentor told me once, "pain is not meant to stop you. It is meant to guide you toward who you are meant to be. You have to dance with your pain." My best friend through it all had found a way to dance with her pain. I could see the person that she was: remarkable… and I was honored that she'd invited me to join her in her dance.
Pain comes in many shapes and sizes. It has many faces. We see it everywhere and the world is full of it. No one gets exempt and no one is untouched by it. But what I've learned from making art, from being a daughter of artists, from my friends who are artists, and what I used to tell clients at a paint-and-sip where I once worked:
"You're only an artist if you choose to be. So I don't care what the hell your job title is, we all have an artistic nerve." - pardon me for self-quoting… but real-talk.
When life gives you a mess, you can do one of three things: you can drag yourself through the mess, hurl the mess at other people, or you can make something beautiful with it that you and everyone can enjoy.
As it just so happens: life is full of mess… A lot of it. So choose wisely.
Be like my extraordinary best friend. Rare and resilient. No matter what life throws your way, have the courage, the tenacity, and the effervescence to find the artist in you, learn to dance with your pain and make beauty from the mess.
A salute to my best friend.
