The deeper strokes

Imagine you are sitting in a meeting room.. just as you get comfortable, you are informed the meeting is delayed by a few minutes; ’few’ ofcourse could mean anything!

A very ‘slice of life’ moment for most – but what if this slice opens the door to someone’s else’s life…

This happened to me some days back. A colleague and I were sitting in one of our meeting rooms. We had a choice to go back or stay put and we chose to stay put. Laptop screen came back on, my mailbox gave me an apologetic look.

While my fingers touched the keyboard, my eyes were still not ready to cooperate and continued to hover around the neat and sunlit meeting room, finally pausing on the big framed artwork in front.

A huge piece of art…something that I walked past many times, but never really ‘seen’.

Our office walls are adorned with beautiful artworks – this one seemed too abstract for my understanding.

But, in that moment, I saw a little hut (familiar shape!) emerging amidst the complex brushstrokes. So there was something that I understood after all! This piqued my interest and I called my colleague; we spent the next few minutes identifying shapes and figures, making endless new discoveries!

The meeting started eventually; we had a good discussion with some important takeaways. Yet, for me the biggest takeaways had already happened before the meeting even started.

This artful reflection enabled me to seek new perspectives, go beyond the obvious – identify dots to create patterns and piece together stories that are often hidden in plain sight.

The patterns we identify first, tell us more about ourselves, but as we spend more time understanding the brushstrokes, the patterns..a new layer, a new story unfolds.

We are all living artworks, each one is exquisite, complex yet out there for others to unfold. True appreciation of others’ value requires intent, involvement and a bit of imagination.

While not exactly new lessons, this experience was a needed refresher on:

• Be proud of your story – continue to create your brushstrokes, whether understood or not

• There’s value in every story – we, the beholders need to put in a bit more effort

Van Gogh died in 1890, having sold only 1 painting. His work found value only after 1910 and today is worth millions of dollars and is an inspiration for all budding artists!