The power of the artist to create never ceases to amaze me. That artist is, I believe, within each of us. Sometimes we are blessed to discover it and sometimes it lays dormant until a certain moment, sight or situation makes an appearance on our path. When this happens something deep within moves, jostles, rises up and the artist is born yet again.

On Friday evening we headed down to Rice Park in St. Paul to witness artists at work. Their medium? Ice. Their tools? Power saws. Sanders. Picks. Hair dryers. These artists, at some point in their life, saw a block of ice but saw something within the block of ice that needed to take shape, needed to be released from its icy home. And so they took up the tools they had in their workshops and garages and began to free the ice-held form.

Watching these artists decked out in layer upon layer against the frigid temperatures, I was astounded. Taking 300 pound blocks of ice, they chopped and chiseled then stood back to set their artist’s eye upon their work so far. Covered in thin layers of frosty white they moved back to cut and prod yet again. Soon the captive images began to emerge….animals, people, buildings, whimsical characters began to be visible to those of us standing nearby. All this from frozen water farmed from area lakes.

As I watched I wondered at what started these people on their path. At what point did they know they could, must, carve ice into art? Where did the muse first nudge them to pick up their tools and carve? Certainly, living in Minnesota, we must at some point of the long winters begin to either see the beauty it in or flee to warmer climes. Most of us read more books, knit more sweaters, eat more chocolate.

But these people picked up the gifts of the winter earth around them and made something more of it. It caused me to think of the other artists I know who make art because, they say, “they must.” Without creating their art, these people might perish. Perhaps not literally but certainly in spirit.

I believe we all have those things we ‘must’ do, must create or our spirits perish. Often in the push and pull of life it is easy to err on the side of responsibility and deny ourselves the time and space for these spirit nurturing ‘musts’. Has this been your experience? Have the obligations of life pulled you in directions that have created the illusion that there is not time or money or space to give to what your heart yearns so for?

It has been my experience that the days in which I can allow even a few minutes for the ‘musts’, I move me along the path of responsibility and obligation in a much smoother way. It often feels to me like I am filling my spiritual tank by tapping into that deep longing inside thus allowing the day to day tasks to be accomplished with greater ease. I have come to believe that this is because I am, perhaps, walking much closer with Spirit at these times.

And you? What calls to you that ‘must’ be done? What block of ice holds something only you can free? Today may be the day to pick up the tools at hand and get started. It just might make the day go more smoothly. And who knows what art you might create along the way?