. . . and a crack on the ceiling had the habit of sometimes looking like a rabbit. This line - from Ludwig Bemelman's book Madeline - is one of my favorites. And when I read how he found it , I appreciated it even more. Ludwig Bemelmans had been in a car accident. Lying in his hospital bed, he noticed a crack in the ceiling that was shaped like a rabbit. In the room next to his was a girl who was going to have her appendix out. These two events were to become key pieces of the first Madeline story. In his hospital bed, experiencing what many would call misfortune, he registered the clues for a new path. When I'm in the middle of something seemingly difficult or painful, I have a strong inclination to shut down - to resist, try to manipulate the situation, or escape all together. But what I label good and bad become interchangeable when I am looking to create my next step - for all can be used as a portal to creating something from the heart. Still, I can only see the possibilities my own judgment of a situation will allow. If Ludwig Bemelmans had been consumed with the idea of his misfortune, I don't suspect he would have taken notice of that crack, nor taken any interest in the girl with the appendix. Openness is the determining factor. We are creators; we can work with anything. There is possibility and potential in everything. Clues are everywhere, ideas- all over the place, new doors- everywhere our attention turns. But, it is the open, curious, non-judgmental eye that sees the guidance the heart provides.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
From the Inside
|