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| How Fish Are |
Do you ever make plans and then feel disappointed with the outcome? Later, you wondered if you could have done more to get a better result. When things come apart, it seems like the natural choice to step in, taking control. Sometimes I feel that's the only way to make it work.
I found out that things can go a lot better when I let go of focusing on controlling the outcome.
This week I had the chance to let go when another artist invited me to her studio. There, I spent a few hours playing with new painting techniques. I usually make rough sketches, filling in the color with tiny brushes. I felt a little envious watching her experiment and take risks. She looked over and told me to do the same. I wasn't able to control the materials. It was a scary way for me to paint.
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| Paint Experiment #1 |
I have to say I liked using the new painting techniques. It was a slow process and forced me to let the paint travel on its own. It's changed the way I look at painting.
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| Paint Experiment #2 |
Consider the fish. A fish swims in a chaotic sea that it cannot possibly control — much as we all do. The fish, unlike us, is under no illusion that it controls the sea, or other fish in the sea. The fish doesn’t even try to control where it ends up — it just swims, either going with the flow or dealing with the flow as it comes. It eats, and hides, and mates, but does not try to control a thing.
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| Fish Being Fish |
How can you free yourself from the habit of needing to control the outcome of something?
Fish Rock
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