Today is Where Your Book Begins

If you haven't heard Natasha Bedingfield's song "Unwritten", well, you're just missing out on a great song that really moved me. Check out her video here.

Here are some words I hope you will really hear:

I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand, ending unplanned
Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find...
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten.

I was once at a discussion group for artists, and one woman commented that the scariest thing for her was the blank canvas. She could just stare at it for hours with no ideas, no inspiration, just white emptiness. Well, in my opinion, that might have just been her problem.

What should excite us the most is the blank canvas. Whether you are an artist, a mother (your blank canvas is your child, so to speak), a business person with a new idea, a scientist with a new theory. Your blank canvas is the next hour coming up. Your blank canvas is tomorrow. What will you do with that canvas?

As an artist, I start by slappin' some gesso on that canvas. Then, I might glue some tissue paper for a little texture- boy I love me some tissue paper! Then I'll grab a favorite glaze like Golden's Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide or Irridescent Gold Deep. Next, I will likely search for some kind of focal point by diving through my box of images, faces, hands, pictures, photos, etc. That is how to open that dirty window.

As a business person, my canvas becomes a list. A list of goals. A list of what I need as far as products, a list of where I want to be. Then, I do something absolutely magical. I actually start doing those things. How did I get my first cards sold? I walked my butt right into a store and asked. Yes, it's just that easy. Yes, it was scary. Yes, I've had lots of people tell me no. Oh, I will have a whole blog entry on that whole "no" thing. Soon.

As a mom, I have three little blank canvases, although two are old enough that those canvases are now being embellished by others. There are days when I'd like to loose those little canvases at the mall. (Am I going to get arrested now? Rest assured that it will never happen). But, I know I can open the dirty window on those days by filling up the bathtub with lots of toys and letting them play 'till they're totally prunny, or opening up "Where the Sidewalk Ends" and reading "If the World Was Crazy".

So, today is where YOUR book begins. The rest is still unwritten, but you are holding the pen/paintbrush/keyboard, and you really do have control over what happens next. Feel the rain on your skin.

Get the full lyrics here.