...express yourself

I started writing this blog yesterday. It began with a sudden prompting of the song by pop Queen & Icon Madonna, as is often my train of thought. I frequently zone in on a word or phrase – heard, sung or spoken. It often resonates too much for me to leave alone and sometimes needs a bit more clarity and inspiration from God.

Yesterday I was thinking too much and trying too hard on my own to craft something... it felt like hard work and I wasn’t happy with the way it felt – it really just wasn’t me…so I left it. And thank goodness, or my thanks and worship go to God, firstly for inspiring me but then interceding to tell me to ‘stop’.

Whilst reflective, my blogs are mainly just a form of expression for me – although I hope that sometimes others may randomly find what I have written and are also inspired, moved or provoked. Because that is what life is about – an exciting journey to behold each and every day. Where will it go? None of us truly understand – as the ripple effect of ourselves and our actions will almost certainly never be fully known.

So how we express ourselves could have quite a profound effect on another or others. It’s how others interpret much of who we are.

My inspiration around expression of self was reignited today as I briefed a colleague on how I wanted something to look but feel at the same time. When seeing, touching and feeling what I required would evoke a real sense of connection. Wow…exactly the same inspiration I had started with a day earlier but suddenly bang in focus for me, as I explained it to another, I realised what I had been trying to express before.

So maybe thinking about how we express ourselves through words – spoken or written is perhaps not the best starting place. We can be too pompous or clever and they require us to maybe use just two of our senses – visual and/or audible. And God doesn’t see us that way – so maybe we should find other ways to think about how we express ourselves and how others decipher all of who we are.

So maybe you will never want to share this thought process with others but if you had to choose an object expresses who you are? You may want to get into the granular descriptive detail, thinking about how that object looks, feels, sounds, smells and tastes. It’s quite a tall order, so you may not find one object that includes all the senses but a handful of items may really encompass who you really are – the true expression of yourself.

My prayer is that this would be some of the facets of self that many others already see and experience within us but using this method you might be able to find the nuances of self, that deeply express subtleties that others may easily miss in you. Or those that are hidden deeply within you but that you feel are truly at the heart and soul of who you are and that you would really like others to see and connect with.

I am really excited to give this idea more thought and to come up with a handful of objects that really define me, because perhaps this might be a little of the way God understands the uniqueness that is me or indeed you.