Kay:

Hey, there Questers it’s Fri-yay…

Shi:

Whoop-whoop!

Kay:

May 14th, episode 355 here. We have a really artsy, fun quote for you today from Kurt Vonnegut and he says, “To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.”

Shi:

I love this kind of champion of the arts perspective that Kurt brings forward here. Just that reminder in the society that we live in now, the vast, incredible amount of importance that is put on making money and being productive. We need this reminder our bank accounts aren’t the only thing we’re supposed to be looking at and trying to grow. Our souls deserve that as well, if not, even more, higher of a priority and yet we so often put that off to the side. So, being reminded that art is one of those ways that our soul grows helps us see the value in doing something that helps us feel like we’re creatively expressing.

Kay:

To our international listeners who might be in a country that doesn’t value capitalism quite so highly please know that our credo comes from America. We do love our free market, but there is a lot of pressure around letting every single minute of your day be something that is valuable for creating some kind of gain in your future. Be that gain for the status of your home or gain for your bank account. It can be hard sometimes to give yourself permission to practice any art. So, for our Americans or anyone, maybe feeling that pressure of our capitalistic society, let this be your official permission.

Shi:

Permission to art.

Kay:

Permission granted. Get out there express and expand because that’s really what art’s all about. What I love about art is that expression element. When you’re expressing, think about expression. It’s not perfect. There is no box that you can put around expression. You can’t say, “expression is this,” because it looks different for everyone, much like perfection when we talked about just yesterday. So, really when you’re in this expression space, you’re creating expansion. You’re creating growth for yourself, but you’re doing it in a way that might not be in that traditional straight path.

Shi:

When you think about a little kid is kind of in this flow all the time just doing stuff with their body and building things in the sand. The amount of paper that we use in my house with three kids in elementary school. They express ALL the time. They love to draw. They make comics, they make paintings, they do drawings, they have crossword puzzles. They are all about creating and they’ll feel the urge and they’ll go to the dresser we’ve got all set up and they’ll pull out the paper and they use it faster than we can keep things stocked. (Yes, we use a ton of scratch paper. The backs of announcements that come home from school and those kinds of things.) But it’s neat to see that we’re born with that need and want to continuously create and express and not judge it and not trying to get it perfect but just to practice art and let that soul grow and experience that richness, that depth, that dimension that’s available to us spiritually in this really accessible way.

Kay:

Now you might not be running to your dresser full of construction paper and glitter, but if you love the types of art that Shila and I like to engage in as adults are things like dancing. It feels really good to put on a really good song and…

Shi:

If “Uptown Funk” doesn’t get you going. Come on!

Kay:

You know, get your beats going. There is an Elton John song that Ken is just playing on loop in our house right now and always does “I’m still standing” So, dancing, chalk drawing. Shila, and I both love to play the piano. Shi and her husband like gardening, writing. These are some of the regular forms of art that we like to engage in and so it’s not like art has to be this artsy-fartsy, crazy thing that you’re like off on a cliff in the middle of nowhere, painting the scene. You can do it localized in your environment and really make a change.

Shi:

Painting rocks is something that we love to do, or maybe you’re attracted to rocks or painting or something like that.

Kay:

We created noisemakers one year.

Shi:

We decorated jugs and put screws in them and…

Kay:

We put jingle bells and screws.

Shi:

…all kinds of stuff inside of them as a fun art project. Shout out to mom and dad – aka Gaga and Papa – for always facilitating a love of art and expression in our childhoods and giving us that gift to continue into our adulthood. To remind us of what Kurt Vonnegut tells us, which is, “To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.”

Kay:

Alrighty gang, do your Creativity Quest. That’s what we’ve got for you either today or at some point over the weekend, we want you to practice an art, any art. Just get out there and get those creative juices flowing. We are personally going to ensure that we get a dance party this weekend as we’re all together. We can’t wait to see what you do as well. Be sure to tag us on Instagram when you complete your quest and let’s collaborate on this together. Are you ready?

Shi:

Say it with us now.

Kay & Shi:

Let’s quest!