Dusting your soul.

"The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls." Pablo Picasso

How do you wash the dust of daily life off your soul?

Augustine of Hippo said, "The soul, which is spirit, can not dwell in dust."

It seems that we all need a place where we can wash the dust of daily life off our souls. Sometimes I write, sometimes I pray, sometimes I paint, sometimes I meditate, and sometimes I sing, but always I need a place to wash the dust from my soul that gathers through my daily travels and attempts to settle on and coat my humanity thereby dulling the luster of life.

It seems that true expression, regardless of its form, is art. When we express ourselves we are dusting the dirt from daily life off of our souls.

What is the dust of daily life that is gathering one your soul? Sometimes we get so busy that we don’t have time to dust and it is not until we stop that we notice the layer of dust that has formed on our soul.

The creation story is one of God creating a masterpiece by speaking forth into the formless void in order to create life. Often I think this is what we need to do, to speak forth into our deep formless voids the truth of who we are thereby creating life. Naming our realities and claiming the voice of our soul is art at its very essence, and when we speak forth whether in words or actions we are dusting our souls-- we are creating life and therefore, art.

And when we are able to wash the dust of daily life from our soul we are, like St. Edna Vincent Millay said, able to split the sky into and the let face of God who lives in us shine through.