Enchanted means living wondrously even when suffering.
You participate in a magical world painted by the divine.
But, if you are stuck in disenchantment, how do you see magic?
Three simple habits re-enchant your life with wonder.
#1 Outside beauty is magical
Enchantment begins with a retreat outside like a daily coffee walk or a drive to beautiful spaces.
Lately, I drive ten minutes to Exall Lake in the middle of Highland Park.
One morning a bobcat surprised me. Talk about enchantment!
Outside is God’s world unconstrained and bursting with imagination.
Inside lurks the narrow corridors of disenchantment.
Technology can trap us inside screened corridors with . . .
- skepticism
- tribalism
- cynicism
But, outside, all kinds of wonder awaits!
Some think they must travel a long way to find enchantment.
Jack Kerouac’s, On the Road, is a fiction novel about traveling across the U.S.A with friends.
Written shortly after World War II, Jack was obsessed with escaping despair and finding wonder after the war’s mass destruction and death. He felt every day was fleeting until he looked up.
“As we crossed the Colorado-Utah border I saw God in the sky in the form of huge gold sunburning clouds above the desert that seemed to point a finger at me and say, ‘Pass here and go on, you’re on the road to heaven.'” Jack Kerouac, On the Road (New York: Penguin Books, 1999), 171.
Beauty and meaning are outside every day if we look. But, you don’t have to go far.
#2 Your enchanted studio
That’s why every creative needs an enchanted space, a place to be like a kid again.
Impressionist painter Claude Monet was tired and weary of modern society in 1876.
So, he sets up an office on a boat, floating on the Seine river.
The boat was small but big enough to hold art supplies. It was . . .
” . . . a cabin made out of planks where I had just enough room to set up my easel.” Claude Monet
Sometimes, he painted letting the boat drift encouraging work based on momentary glimpses.
As a result, Monet diligently stoked the sparks of his imagination and believe it or not, his workshop, the studio boat, is one of the most acclaimed of all his paintings. He painted it en plein air in oil on canvas in 1876.
#3 Enchantment despite suffering
The amazing part of this story is Monet’s determined creativity while suffering financial trouble.
In spite of his inspiring studio, Monet was stressed for money and forced to ask for help.
“Here I am again without a soul,” he wrote to his friend Edouard Manet. He asked to borrow fifty francs one day and twenty francs another. “I have got into the hands of a bailiff who can cause me a lot of trouble. He has given me until midday.”
Manet came to his aid, as he often did. Antonin Proust says that Edouard promoted his friend’s paintings at exhibitions by placing canvases “in a good light,” and aggressively finding buyers for them and not worrying about his own.
Claude Monet’s paintings enjoyed Manet’s special attention at these events.
Edouard Manet captured the essence of his friend’s creative beauty when he painted Monet working on his studio boat. It was one of Manet’s favorite works, which he called Monet in His Studio.
Three small steps to enchantment
- Get outside every day
- Set up your creative space
- Do your work every day even when suffering
What would you add for more enchantment?
Thanks for pointing us towards the light Steve as always….
We are on the journey together Jeff!