Let Your Heart Sing!

Note from Stacey: Nicole Docimo left a comment after a quote posted, here, on the MfYL blog and I was immediately taken by her enthusiasm for life and her view that our main purpose is to find what makes our hearts sing and do it. I followed her to her blog Blue Bicicletta and I fell in love with her words, her images…HER! I asked Nicole if I could post one of the essays I especially loved here and if she would follow it with another post on the creative process and she graciously consented to both. So I hope you enjoy this article and look forward to the next as much as I do! Read more about Nicole below.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately.
{hmmm. to be honest, when am I not thinking a lot? I’m kind of a thinking machine—I have a major monkey, busy brain, that I am trying to learn how to shut off sometimes.}

But, as I said, I’ve been thinking a lot lately—specifically about this idea:

I had a series of moments the other day in my work car—I was driving around being the courier that I am (for extra money in the afternoons), and I began to have one of those epic experiences of overwhelm when I find myself wanting to shout something from rooftops, or send a message out, dangling from small balloons to everyone, everywhere. And it was this message that I wanted to send out: let your heart sing.

This is not a new concept for anyone, or even for me, but for some reason, in that moment I really wanted to DO something—to tell people just how important it is. I imagined writing a letter and sending it out on the waves on the internets, among many other ideas which are still forming. But perhaps, I should explain why this is so important to me?

You probably already know this, but we are here on this earth for a very small period of time. Who knows what happens after we depart, hopefully something extraordinarily wonderful, but still, being here on this earth is pretty wonderful, don’t you think? So, we’re here on this wonderful earth, and we’re all so busily going around trying to figure things out, or just going around being busy, and we get so wrapped up in money and time and houses and jobs, and gotta do this, and gotta do that. You know: life.

I am right there with my busy brain, but then, I have these moments of transcendence—they are still and beautiful moments, sometimes I almost want to cry with relief that they exist. In these moments, I feel this buzzing amazement in my heart. This beautiful blue everything. In these moments, my heart is singing.

Of course, much of this for me goes back to art—oh, art—-I get to feel like I’m five years old again when I make art. Art makes my heart sing (and that even rhymes—isn’t it wonderful that art and heart rhyme?) But I think everyone has their own specific way of making their heart sing—maybe it’s dancing, maybe it’s math problems, maybe it’s counseling kids, or building model airplanes, or traveling to the moon. It could be anything, and I think—no—I know, without a doubt, that we are here to find that thing that makes our heart sing, and DO IT, DO IT, DO IT. Do it in any way, for any amount of time that you can. Think about it: what would life really be worth without doing what you really, truly love? What would be the point??!!

I feel perhaps that regular readers of my blog are thinking, “yeah, yeah, she’s said this all before,” and I have, but honestly—I wish I could whisper it in your ear every moment of every day. Perhaps that’s why I made the drawing above (and put it on special sale in my shop, so as many people who want it can take it into their lives). Perhaps that’s why I blog about this exhaustively. Perhaps this is why I have moments in cars when I get so filled up that I feel like I must go to my blog and type like a maniac to say this to anyone who might be reading. If you are reading: please accept this as a message from my heart to your heart, and pass it on—be the person who whispers it into people’s ears every moment of every day. Be someone who lives it.

One final idea: you may be thinking: but how and when and where do I let my heart sing? And I will answer: all you have to do is make a little time (I’m talking five minutes a day, if that’s all you have) to let yourself dream, and then it’s just one small step at a time—doing what feels good to you. And I promise, if you do that, then slowly (or all of a sudden) you will notice yourself and your life widening to let more of this singing in.

I love to talk about these things, so please do leave a comment here, or send me an email if you want a partner in crime, or some moral support in finding your way. Now, go forth and LET YOUR HEART SING.

Nicole K. Docimo is an artist living and working in Davis, California. She compares making art to “riding a bike fast, down hills, wind blowing in her hair.” Most of all, she loves putting black lines onto white paper, and many of her drawings start from that simple place. She is also crazy about letters and words and keeps trying to find new ways to combine words and visual art into inspiring, funny, and lively original drawings and prints.

In addition to making art, she loves blogging about anything and everything creative and inspiring, spending time outside, hanging out with her husband Mike and beastly dog Lance, cooking, gardening, dreaming, sleeping, and taking regular trips to the public library.

She also tends an online art shop where her whimsical works are available in a variety of forms. You can even  find a special sale of a print of the original pen and ink drawing featured above!

Tagged as: "feeling good", happiness, Joyful Life