We create with our thoughts and words just as an artist creates with brush and paint.

I sat under a shade tree watching him paint. Every stroke of his brush was clearly deliberate. He dabbed bits of color together, adding shades and depth to the image beginning to appear on the canvas before him. At times he mixed the colors completely to form a single shade. At other times his brush delivered a variety colors within that single stroke.

It took a while before I could make out what he was painting, though I could tell from the way he worked that the image was clearly seen in his mind before the first stroke of his brush upon the canvas. If he struggled at all, it was only to adequately transfer that image from within his mind onto the canvas. The whole process appeared effortless and unpretentious.

We are all artists, creators of visions that dance and frolic in our minds eye. With our thoughts and words we transfer the images in our mind to the canvas of our temporal reality. As we do this, we have a choice. We can perform our work as a master painter, with deliberation and practice, choosing and mixing our words just as the painter chooses and mixes color.

In the beginning we may struggle and stammer, just as a child might smear paint across a canvas hoping something recognizable would appear from her efforts. Over time, with attention and perseverance, the true artist within us emerges. As we speak, our words paint images in the minds of others and they see and understand and are moved. And those who have not practiced are amazed.

We can be a master artist, choosing our thoughts and words with careful attention. We select the images that will occupy our awareness, the scene, the time, the place, and the form. We are all artists.

We must decide whether to remain as a child scribbling on a wall, clamoring for attention, or advance to a level of mastership, where our art speaks for itself.

It is out of our thoughts and our words that our life is created. All that is required is an answer to a few simple questions. Are we content with scribbling? Are we working on our masterpiece?