The Art of Identity

Green is the New Black

“No one has to know who you are for you to be who you are.” -unknown

If I could remember in which book I read this, I would give the author his or her due. Alas, it has been many years since reading it, but I do know social media was not then what it is today. Then, I’m quite sure I underlined, highlighted and copied the statement into a journal. I’ve returned to the thought time and again, usually when I’m feeling a bit lost or invisible or simply need to encourage myself to create and enjoy beauty just for the pleasure. The act of creating or enjoying beauty provides a perspective shift.

“Beauty, by definition, elevates and gives pleasure to the mind and senses. It engages us on multiple levels. We participate in beauty. Genesis 1 and 2 tell us that we are made in God’s image, meaning we were created to be creative.” - Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt Is In the Wind

A lot has changed in a year and I’ve yet to find a place to hang my proverbial hat, by which I refer to position and its accompanying purpose that served as a type of identity anchor. I feel the identity loss or “drift” keenly. And yet, in the past few weeks I’ve begun to feel a relaxation in my mind and even in my body. I’ve pondered that even though I feel adrift, at least the drift isn’t unpleasant. It is just unfamiliar in some ways, but in others it is reminiscent of pockets of time in past seasons—the unseen and unshared seasons of life before 2000.

I remember the years of living life and creating things unviewed by the public at large—a life unseen by a few thousand “friends” and unshared in pixels.

I just came from lying in my backyard hammock. It hangs under a Live Oak and from it I have an inverted bird’s eye view of the Red Headed Woodpeckers rat-tat-tatting away in the Pine a few feet away. They’ve drilled multiple holes up and down the trunk. The tree broke in half a few years ago during a tropical storm. Its felling left it bare of branches and its now jagged, bark-less top lends a naked vulnerability to the conifer. At times I feel a bit like that Pine, half-way toppled by a storm, branchless, bark-less and wondering about my future. This metaphor gives me a chuckle but the “naked vulnerability” is a story for another day!

We thought to have the trunk removed but the Woodpeckers love it so. Other birds have taken up residence in some of the nesting holes giving the trunk a condo vibe. Even with the not so pretty changes to the backyard Pine, it boasts so much new life! As a result of the storm, a new haven for birds was made possible. They hollow out their “apartments” to nest and feed their young. The dead tree is easier for the woodpeckers to drill and the missing branches decrease the attention of predators. Aha! Win/Win.

Perhaps the “art of identity” is to stop viewing loss as a negative - change in position and to, instead, view it as a positive - positioned for change.

Like the dead Pine hosting life like never before, become a host of new ideas, skills and interests. Become more you—not less. Unlike the dead Pine, grow taller and put out new branches and pine needles. Green is the new black! Be who you are in the solitary and the swell; enjoy the privacy of the unseen or the publicness of the shared. Create for the process of creating. Pleasure in beauty for beauty’s sake. Thrill in every “Aha!” and revel in each Win/Win along the way.

Creatively Yours,

Melanie

Willow Tree She - an original watercolor by me