Morihei Ueshiba

"Your heart is full of fertile seeds, waiting to sprout."

— Morihei Ueshiba

Founder of Aikido

Japanese Writer

1883 - 1969

Each of us is full of potential.  If you have within your heart the desire to create music, paintings, stories or poems, you also have within your heart the seeds of those paintings, songs, poems and stories.  The flowering of these seeds also depends on the soil in which they are planted.  Is it rich, fertile soil?  Or rocky, barren soil?  The amount of rain and sunshine is also important.

Is your heart ready to grow the paintings you are destined to paint?  Or the poems you are destined to write?  Or the stories you are destined to tell?  Only you can nurture the seeds within your heart.  Only you can pick the fruit from the trees your heart will grow.  Your creativity is a gift.  Are you using it wisely?  Or have you hidden it from others?  The choice is yours.

Joan Miro

The Garden 2

Joan Miro

"More important than a work of art itself is what it will sow.  Art can die, a painting can disappear.  What counts is the seed."

Joan Miro

Spanish Painter/Sculptor

1893 - 1983

Joan Miro

Growing up in a conservative Mennonite family, I was not exposed to art as a child.  My maternal grandfather even discouraged photographs.  My first exposure to art came my freshman year in college where in one of my classes we had to choose an artist to study.  I chose Miro and his paintings planted in my soul a love of art.  Artists, musicians and writers all plant seeds with their works of art.  A great novel stays with you long after you have read it.  When you fall in love with a painting, you come back to it again and again for it to refresh your soul.  How many times do you listen to the same piece of music over and over.  And each time you hear it years later, it brings back waves of emotion.  

What seeds are you planting with your writing, your painting or your music?  How is your art impacting your audience? What seeds have you planted in their souls?  

I am curious.  Please share with me who were the first artists, writers and musicians to touch your life.