We all need a bit of love
Artists of almost every medium have found inspiration throughout the ages, in the concept of love. Whether that be an expression of emotion felt for a lover, a friend, a family member or even Divine love - there is enough ‘love-themed’ art and literature to fill this world many times over.
One thing is absolutely for certain; artists are often driven to create, simply for the love of creating; a passion that drives them to use their God-given talent to express the innermost secrets of their soul as a means of expression - and oftentimes to create something that also depicts a subject that they do indeed love.
So obsessed is the world with love, that February 14th has been celebrated for generations as a day dedicated only to the ones we love. Spouses gifting cards, gifts and flowers to one another, mothers to their sons and even friends to their friends; on Valentine’s Day as we know it, you are hard pressed to find a dinner table reservation at your favourite restaurant because it has been booked for weeks by people who want to spend that one evening, focused solely on the special person in their lives.
Is our unquenchable desire for love (as depicted through art, music and literature) so strong because the reality of the world we live in can often feel filled with the opposite?
Switching on any breakfast television show, or even just looking at the news on your phone as the majority of us do, we are bombarded with images that depict a world where love couldn’t possibly exist. And so we choose to create it in our own mini-worlds - within the spaces of our homes, within special rooms or within our religious spaces and establishments.
Think about the photographs you may have displayed on your walls or mantle pieces - reminders of time spent with loved ones, special anniversaries commemorating people we have loved, even the pets that so innocently wander around our feet make us feel such immense love or remind of us such love, that sometimes words of expression can simply fail us. Our mini-worlds are very different to things we are forced to see on the news.
When our phones, speakers and TVs fall silent, and newspapers and magazines are put down, when we sit in silence in those stolen moments, in moments of reflection or prayer within the privacy of our own spaces, what is it that provides us with centre, with purpose or with real meaning? It is simply love.
And who doesn’t want that in their life?
Sharing my reflections as part of our #52creatives challenge.
Want to know more? Looking to join? Start here: 52 weeks of inspiration
