I’m starting to notice something interesting when I’m getting to know someone. I’m finding that I don’t really know them until I find their art. Whether it’s playing an instrument, quilting, cooking, painting, writing, dancing, building or decorating, I don’t feel like I find out who a person really is until I see how they’re truly gifted. Sometimes this can take years to unearth about someone. You go along thinking this person just exists through life, working, taking care of their family, tending to life’s little obstacles as they come along, and then one day, they make dessert for the staff potluck and you realize they can bake. Or you visit someone’s home for the first time and see their amazing sculptures all over the house. Whatever the talent, you feel like you’ve just learned a new piece of them. You see them in a new way. I believe this happens when we follow our passions, when we tap into what really makes us come alive. Eventually others get to see it, too.

Maybe this sense of knowing someone more intimately through discovering their art is because these talents are God-given. They’re breathed into us when we’re created, and ultimately, they are at the core of who we are. By pursuing them, cultivating them and sharing them, we become more and more of what we were meant to be. There’s a quiet self-confidence to be had by pursuing the talent meant just for you, and not for others. Growing up, I really enjoyed pursuing a lot of different art forms. I played piano, sang, acted, learned a foreign language, and loved to dance and cook. I wasn’t necessarily excellent at any of those things, but I enjoyed them. In fact, I became an elementary school teacher because I knew I would get to cover a variety of subjects, not just one particular thing. To choose one particular career path, or even a secondary subject to teach, seemed too limiting. However, as I get older and look back at the times in my life when I truly felt passionate about what I was doing, when I look at how I’d spend my free time, when I felt most “me,” it has always been while writing. While everything else is a lot of fun for me, writing is at the core of who I am.

To discover there are different “cores” to different people, that we all have something that simply makes us who we are, is to see a bit of the Divine in each of us. The sooner we can tap into that piece of ourselves, the sooner we can find a peace that connects us to the world, to history, and to each other. It can be easy to float through life without developing our art. Life gets busy, there are plenty of responsibilities that can flood in and demand our time, attention and energy. But balance is everything, and we will be better at tending to those responsibilities as we feed and grow those pieces of ourselves that are the heart of who we are. If you haven’t found your art yet, start searching. What are you passionate about? What is something in your life you couldn’t do without? Begin to cultivate it and see what happens. Share it and find yourself blessed.