Given all its challenges, when we get through a day, a week, or a month in 2020 safely, I think we’re all thankful each day. Now, it’s time to be more than just thankful.
Finding The Blank Slate
A few years back, my family and I visited Giverny, where Impressionist painter Claude Monet, lived and found inspiration for his series of paintings, called Water Lilies. Having seen the life-size paintings in the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, and then seeing the actual water lilies in Giverny, I clearly understood that flowers made Monet happy. Plain and simple.
But unlike his other work (Impression, Sunrise), it wasn’t the beautiful view that inspired him to paint. On the contrary, for Water Lillies, he first created the garden. He plotted and planted; and during that time, discovered that by spending energy in beautifying the world around him, he could momentarily banish his woes. These flowers, both in real life and on his canvas, gave him tremendous comfort during his most difficult times.
Following the Inspiration
Most of 2020 has been conveyed as a fight (against the virus, the economy, and election year politics). Some of us have suffered losses in a myriad of ways. We have spent so much time on the darker side of our emotions this year that we are ready for a shift. At the same time, 2020 has instilled in us a restless energy, like a runner about to take off, or a car waiting for the green flag to accelerate. We need to use that energy.
Instead of just feeling thankful, we can find greater joy by creating beauty around us, whatever our circumstances are. Like Monet, we can lose ourselves in the pursuit of this beauty. We can go beyond gratitude towards a tangible appreciation of our efforts, and give ourselves something else to remember 2020 for.
For some of us, that may mean cooking and baking lots of amazing desserts and meals. For others, we focus on decorating our homes with lavish holiday decorations, building something for our home with our bare hands, or donating our time to worthwhile causes. And still, for others, it could mean the painstaking glory of gardening and creating a masterpiece, simply for ourselves.
“My finest masterpiece is my garden.”
Claude Monet
That’s what Monet did.
It might seem shallow to be focused on our wellbeing and our surroundings given what’s going on in the world. But remember that our world is where our focus is. And whatever we can do to make our world better improves the whole world just a little bit. Monet’s focus on constructing beauty in a garden to bypass his internal worries ended up inspiring unbelieveable art (valued at over $50 million) for the whole world to enjoy, even now, more than a century later.
Channel your inner Monet to have a truly beautiful holiday season.
~ Roopal Badheka
Supporting:
- Admire Monet’s Water Lilies by visiting the Musée de l’Orangerie virtually.
- Lose yourself in a movie about a Monet-Lover (one of my favorites).
- Read last year’s Gratitude Blog: How Gratitude Connects Us
- Find inspiration in a simple, happy TV show that devours a culture that appreciates everything from food to fashion to wine that takes place in one of the world’s most beautiful cities.