Edges. . .
As some of you may know I am also artist. My grandfather was an accomplished artist. sign painter and doodler. I often sat and watched him wait or sketch and was always fascinated by his skills and the seemingly magic way ideas just flowed onto paper.
The other day I found myself standing in front of a piece I was working on… just staring at it. You know that feeling, nothing is technically wrong… but nothing is quite right either. The lines feel a little off, the colors aren’t fully agreeing and the whole piece feels like it’s in between something . . . not finished, not broken… just unresolved.
My first instinct was to fix it, to tighten the lines, clean up the shapes and bring everything into alignment so it made more sense.Instead, I took my Buddhist cues and stepped back for a moment.
And in that pause, something shifted.
I started to notice that what I thought were “problems” weren’t really problems at all… they were tension points. Little areas where the piece was still on point, still moving in the right artistic directions and still becoming along my original lines of energy and thought.
Those imperfect parts I felt were wrong or off point really weren’t mistakes – they were energy.
It’s funny how quickly we try to smooth things out in our lives. We want clarity, resolution, clean lines. We want things to make sense and feel complete. But life doesn’t really work that way. There are always going to be “rough” edges . . . you know, places where things feel unfinished or moments where we don’t quite have the answers yet.
We often tend to treat such moments like something is wrong, but what if that’s where life is actually happening? Buddhism doesn’t ask us to eliminate the rough edges. It invites us to see them clearly and try to understand that imperfection isn’t something to correct . . .it’s something to experience. Those in-between spaces are not flaws – they are the process.
So maybe today, instead of trying to fix everything we just let some things be unfinished. Let them breathe a little and Let those rough edges exist. It is here in the middle of rough and textured and smooth and finished that we find not only our own edges but the skills and mindsets that make them beautiful.
Peace and Love, Jim
#edges #thedailybuddha #tdb
