Forget the Varnish

So this is my new blog.
I haven't been blogging very often lately, I barely even find time to jot my thoughts down in the dozen notebooks I have on my shelf.
Writing has become a lost art for me, and I miss it.

Things have changed. The past year has been a journey. I guess it's just been really challenging. Challenging my character, my thoughts on life and love and where I fit into this vast expanse of space we call the universe.
It hasn't been easy, but I'm still alive, still smiling. I'm still me.

I created a new blog because I wanted to revive a love that I had lost.
Lately I have forgotten what it means to love something so fiercely that you have to take part in it every day or you feel somewhat incomplete.
I want that back.
But I won't ignore myself.
And I won't apologize.
It seems that I have always been apologizing for the kind of person that I am, but not anymore.
I may be loud, I may be obnoxious, I may be sassy, I may be sweet. I'm a million and one things all jumbled together into one fine mess. But you know what, that mess is a work of art, and I won't apologize for that anymore.

I called this blog "Forget the Varnish" because I believe that we have lost the beauty of what an unfinished painting means. Life is a work of art, one that is constantly being changed. Different colours get added everyday, some making the painting ever more beautiful, some ruining it's form. We've become so preoccupied with creating the perfect painting and then slapping it with a pile of varnish so as not to have it change.
So this is what I am doing. I am forgetting the varnish and trying to remember that everyday brings a new change. What life looks like right now isn't what it will always be, faith right now isn't the way that it is necessarily supposed to be, no matter how many time people try to shove the "truth" down your throat. We've lost the art of surprise and invention. We have all these thoughts and ideas of what life should really look like, or how people should really be. We've forgotten that life's canvas is one that is never ever really full or complete.

So leave the finishing touches at the door. Walk in, sit in front of the canvas of your life, pick up the brush and paint your heart out. And until the last bit of breath is exhaled from your lips, don't ever stop painting.

Life doesn't require a finished product. Not real life at least. Forget the varnish.