Left to my own devises I am a lazy hermit

I desire a muse to wake me from my blasé reverie.  Muses come in so many forms; maybe a person, maybe a book, maybe a painting, maybe a sunset, maybe a paddle board adventure, maybe a song, maybe a melody, a soulful connection with someone, a Christ centered interaction, a euphoric revelation of self worth, a friend to unmask a layer I put on myself.  These muses inspire an action; they move to create something, express something, search deeper for something, or just acknowledge and appreciate.

In Greek Mythology the muses were the carriers of knowledge and their temples were always placed on mountaintops.  This means one must firstly take time to climb the mountain; this action of pursuing a purpose of being inspired or acquiring knowledge, that creates intention.  Once atop the mountain they have a birds eye view of their surroundings and the amusement puts things into perspective.  This sacred experience of creating intention, doing it, and thereafter getting a new perspective or mountain top experience is the goal of art.  So many times when I don’t set an intention, I end up just being entertained.  For Example, living in a city where one can see a show almost every night and if I haven’t prepared for the mountaintop experience then it may just pass me by.   The person who walks to the top is going to appreciate, get more out of it, and receive more than someone who drives to the top or just is told what someone heard from the muses.  Such is going to theater you set intention: I want to experience freedom in this, I am going to research it, I want to be more empathetic, etc. The theater is a temporal muse, like the many muses in our life.

Muses have come and gone in my life.  Their imprint touch my heart, opened it, and changed it and then we continued on our path.  They seem caught in the perfection of philosophy (A life reduced to 90 minutes on a stage or an elevated conversation {that inst your day to day}) and untainted by the drudge of life that share precious moments with you.  It calls you to action.  To appreciate. To Create. To Admire.  And if there is no action then it becomes ennui.  If we are inspired and amused and it doesn’t produce a change, we grow accustom to it.  What a great disservice?!  Muses shared their soul so freely and openly that you are moved to respect, to honor, to place value, to place worth, to change for the better.  The shows or persons come and go but their impact leaves a sensory reminder.  Maybe the scent of cherry blossoms, the quiet feeling of an empty cemetery, wind upon a wheat field, their scent.  Little reminders that we are always growing, moving forward and changing. We allowed them or the experience to come into our lives for a season, a time, maybe just an instant and they teach us that we can open our heart, we can express, we have nothing to hide, we can risk being exposed, risk getting hurt, risk betrayal, risk shame, because the opportunity to experience their knowledge and inspiration is worth any price.

Let’s cultivate appreciation for the muses and experiences in our life.  In college I tried to make it daily task to not forget to see the sunset and not forget to see the stars each night.  If we can’t appreciate these things, why go to theater.  Claude Debussy says

“There is nothing more musical than a sunset. He who feels what he sees will find no more beautiful example of development in all that book which, alas, musicians read but too little – the book of Nature.”

It is through the intentional and aware life that the theatrical life is illuminated.  So let’s cultivate intention, awareness, and appreciation.

In a city such as Seattle one is inundated with a plethora of wonderful enchantments and muses and sometimes they come so swiftly and greatly we cant appreciate it.  We haven’t set intention with it, done it, and climbed the mountain to the muse were we learn and grow.  Instead there is a sky lift to the muses temple and if you pay enough or you are pretty enough you can say you encountered it and it can now be something you throw around at cocktail parties.  However the true journey, joy, and transformation is in the doing, the action of climb, the action of admiring.  Amusement and enchantment becomes mundane otherwise.  Sunsets and stars fade into monotonous occurrences.

Photo Credit in order of appearance:

Kyle Connors, Eden Greenman, and Dakota King

Interestingly the two photos in the blog are taken at the same place only five years apart, one in midsummer and one at the first snow fall of 2017