Let Your Light Shine

My portrait session during the Art of Being ME, an exhibition on mental health.

March 15, 2023, marked my one-year anniversary of joining the formerly 7 Billion Ones now, 8 Billion Ones Movement team. That also happens to be Randy’s birthday. I’d like to think that was a little gift to him, as much as it has been to me. Creativity and art in all its forms has always been incredibly important. It has given me joy, solace and has been an incomparable outlet for me in some very difficult seasons of life. As humans, creativity helps us grow and expand in ways that seem immeasurable, but absolutely can be measured. It is scientifically proven that the brain is stimulated and fed through creative and artistic endeavors, as well as all the ways it nourishes and revives our spirit. We connect with our inner child through creativity. We reduce our brain aging through creativity, but what I would almost deem most important, is how our worldview expands through creativity. Our inner and outer world open up, our perceptions change, the way we think about and consider the world around us and the people in it, change. Art lends perspective, objectivity, and diversity to our lives in the most beautiful and meaningful ways. It enriches our lives and offers beauty and curiosity in places and in ways we might not otherwise seek or have access to.

Me with my Art of Being ME portrait.

All that to say, a few years ago, I started to truly examine and question how I could improve my quality of life. In what areas of my life did I feel as fulfilled as I could be and if I wasn’t fulfilled in the way I wanted to be, what would it look like to change that? What would it take? How could I have more joy, ease and peace? Was I living my most authentic life? If not, why not and what would THAT look like? It’s amazing how easily we can, (and often do) choose to take the path that is known. It’s easy, and by easy, I don’t mean not difficult, I mean it’s the devil we do know versus the devil we don’t, right? But that wasn’t enough for me. Not even close. I started to recognize for the first time, maybe ever in my life, that I was suffering depression and I had been in such a fog of just going through the motions every day, that I nearly didn’t even see it happening. What I came to understand is I wasn’t tapping into my creativity in any real capacity in my life. Work was work. Life outside of work…well, honestly, that felt like work too. I wasn’t feeding my soul. I wasn’t infusing joy anywhere. I felt detached from my authentic self which is a creative person. I hadn’t claimed that title for many, many years and I had reached a pinnacle of melancholy and external expectations that pushed me to a breaking point. I decided to start connecting to those pieces of me that were buried way deep down inside. The dancer, the actress, the artist, the writer. She was in there; those pieces of me existed but felt very far from the surface.

I had the opportunity to work alongside a colleague on an incredible project to raise public awareness around mental health and at the same time be the introductory initiative for our organization’s charitable foundation to be reestablished. It felt like a dream come true. Like I had somehow willed it so. We began working with none other than Randy Bacon Photography to create a one-of-a-kind exhibition that would spotlight many unique stories around the journey of mental health told through the lens of 21 different individuals. I got to work on that project from beginning to end and even became one of the 21. When I say it was life-changing, I’m not exaggerating. You know those moments in life when you step out in faith and do something afraid because you get that small whisper inside of you telling you there is more and this is the pathway to that? Yeah, that was my experience. And so, I shared my story, and I connected with the true mission of Randy’s work and the work of this beautiful movement he had created, and I just knew deep down, this was the pathway to more. And? Here I am. I am living in the “more”. More of everything. More of the good stuff. More satisfaction. More fulfillment. More happiness. More contentment. More creativity. More, more, more. Less to do with me and more to do with this amazing work that is both soul stirring and artistically engaging. It is such a gift and I often reflect on all the small steps that lead me to now. But those steps weren’t small at all. There were a lot of leaps of faith that looking back I can see very clearly. The small things are the big things. That’s the truth. And? Art matters. And this art is life changing. When you are tapping into your true authenticity, your light will automatically shine. It happens without you even realizing it and the truer to yourself you are, the MORE you light up. The moral of this story? Don’t settle. Let your light shine. Carve your own path. Go your own way. Make art. Honor the beauty around you and in your everyday life through the humans you meet and the experiences and memories you make. Rise up to meet the challenges that you face because you just never know where that path is gonna take you. Here’s a little secret; it’s far greater than you can imagine. 

Randy and I at the unveiling of the Art of Being ME.