Living Life As An Artist

by Arleen Lorrance

I don’t know his name, but he served as an inspiration.

We were having dinner at a restaurant in Montreal, Canada. I was sitting facing the bar. For two glorious hours I had the privilege of watching the bartender at his work. He was a master at what he did; he was an artist. Every glass he handled was an embrace. Every bottle he touched was a vessel of magic. Every liquid he poured seemed to be golden. Every movement he made was a ballet; a movement filled with grace. He didn’t just mix drinks and prepare them; he poured his full presence into every action. He created a perfect flow of energy from a source of unbroken attention. I was mesmerized.

I told him how much I appreciated how he made an art form of his job. He was pleased and I was newly inspired to live my life and every moment as an artist imprinting the canvas of life with purposeful brush strokes.

Giving myself this new assignment is no small thing. Wherever I walk, whatever I touch, whatever I say, is a moment that can be filled with artistry. I have done this over my lifetime when I have been specifically focused on what I was doing, but the bartender seemed to have made it a way of life not only as he did his tasks but when he moved about the room. It was as if he was hearing a strain of music that guided his every gesture and interaction.

Perhaps I was reading into what I was observing, and his way of living was a combination of what he was doing and what I was seeing as possible. I don’t know. But whatever it was, it was an invitation to live in greater consciousness, to be more profoundly present.

The Ordinary Turned Vibrant

Rather than just moving through life as if on a conveyor belt, what I observed was turning the ordinary into vibrant energy that would move me with purpose from one moment to the next. Immediately I could see that this would require choice-making and great discipline. It would no longer be enough to do simple things without focus and energy direction. Life would become choreographed with self as the creator. My mind tells me that attempting to live this way would be exhausting. Coasting through the day is so much easier. Yet, I wonder.

I know what it is to live in focused consciousness, to choose words with care when speaking, and to fill communication with purpose. I know the power of zeroing in on another person, reaching into intuition to see what there is for me to say or offer. I know how to be so focused on what I am doing in each moment that I completely merge and become One. If I were to choose to function this way continually, I suspect it would not be tiring but rather exhilarating. It would lift me to a whole new level of functioning as a human being.

The focus and energy I would put forth would be met by an influx of life force and lead to a continuous flow that would be filled with light. I would be infused with awareness beyond my ken.

What I am describing would fit hand and glove with the transformation of humanity that is coming. It is an elevation of excellence. It is to become much more than who I am and to step into a super version of the personality that currently moves about on the earth.

How to do all of this? In the past I used to live by a motto I invented to describe how I function: “When I see it, I be it.” I have used this rapid form of change in the breaking of old patterned ways of living. Those had become so comfortable that they were a way of life, and they defined who I knew myself to be (or thought I did.)

Over these eight decades of living, I have eliminated behaviors and chosen replacements which serve me better. I am still working on some patterns which were so ingrained early on that they require more of my attention. For example, my family constantly created uproar. Over the years, whenever I created frustration, it was often accompanied by a loud voice and considerable fussing.

Now I practice breathing and making new choices. By making this change, I discover that rather than spewing out a barrage of uproar, I have access to a font of energy which enables me to be creative about how to move through the current blockage. I don’t always remember to do this because uproar comes almost automatically, but I am getting better at it and my life in general has a greater flow.

The bartender has inspired me to elevate my daily living, to become more than I am, to transform and steep myself in excellence.

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