RELEASE YOUR ANGEL
Lessons in life from History’s Greatest Sculptor
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, known simply as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet, who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art.
The sculpture he is best remembered for is that of David, a 5.17 metre, 5 ton statue of the Biblical figure, created in marble between 1501 and 1504.
Michelangelo's David is a masterpiece of the history of Florentine art and one of the most famous works in the history of mankind.
When asked how it was that he sculpted such beauty in his work, he is quoted as saying:
“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free”.
Applying this as a lesson for life
I can’t help but think about how this applies to ourselves, our relationships, the people we associate with in life and the circumstances we find ourselves in from time to time.
It is my belief that every one of us came into this life with a destiny to be marvelous works of art. However, somehow as we grew up, our experiences of life encased us in rough and uncomfortable stone.
Unkind or thoughtless things people say to us, unpleasant experiences we have, or simply the way society labels us, all add layers of stone around us, causing us to forget the work of art we were meant to be.
Slowly over time, if we do not cast off the extraneous ‘stone’, we see ourselves as less than we were meant to be, merely as a lump of rock or the rough, ugly edges that have been built up around us.
Atlas by Michaelangelo
[endif]--A visual example of this might be the unfinished ‘Atlas’ another of Michaelangelo’s masterpieces. It is said that he left it unfinished deliberately with Atlas still trapped by the stone to illustrate the point that we are all in danger of life encasing or suppressing us, unless and until we break free.
A Slave Called Atlas is one of Michelangelo's unfinished sculptures. It helps us understand how he carved marble. He liked to think that the figure was imprisoned in the stone and he was gradually releasing it. First he outlined the figure on the front of the block. Then he chipped away from one side, working into the stone. As parts of the body emerged he partially completed them before moving on to the next part.
There is a beautiful statue entitled “Self Made Man” which appears at the beginning of this article. The statue portrays a man holding a hammer in one hand, ready to bring it down on a chisel. The stone he is working on is encasing the lower half of his body. He is sculpting, or releasing, himself from the stone.
This sculpture reminds us that even though we look in the mirror and see a rough and ordinary stone, there is a work of art underneath, just waiting to be released. If that work of art is to be released into the world, it is up to you and I to make it happen. We must take action and remember that life did not put any of us here to be ordinary.
Life put us here to be the best we could be and make a lasting difference for good. The longer we feel sorry for ourselves, the longer we think negatively about ourselves, the more we listen to what other people think is best for us, and the more time we waste standing still, the more layers of “stone” will be built up around us and the harder it will be to break ourselves free. We are not meant to be rocks, we are meant to be works of art.
How Do We Break Free?
1. Have a vision of who we want to be. Just as Michaelangelo envisioned a work of art hiding in the block of stone, we need to have a vision of what we want our lives to become. What are the things you wish you had accomplished? What does happiness look like to you? What traits do you see in others that you would love to have? You must define a vision for yourself so you know what to chisel away from your life, and what to unlock.
2. Chisel away the negative. We worry about how we look, how we act, how much money we make, how we appear on social media, etc. If society can hide us in layers of stone, we can do it to ourselves even worse. It is counter-productive to say, “I want to be more outgoing and make more friends” and then think to ourselves, “I’m so boring to talk to, who would want to hear what I have to say?” If we are going to break free, we need to break free from self-defeating thoughts. Think 10 good things about yourself before you start your day. It may be hard for you to do at first but you’ll be amazed at how soon your self-esteem and confidence starts to increase. This is you grabbing the chisel to start releasing yourself from the stone.
3. Free others from their stone. The best way to improve yourself as a person is to help others improve themselves. There is an expression that goes
“Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself”. (Ralph Waldo Emerson).
Something about serving other people accelerates our own progress. Look for opportunities to compliment the people around you. Thank you for being a good friend. If you see someone struggling, ask them if there is anything you can do to help. People need to hear 10 positive things to offset just 1 negative. If you focus entirely on releasing other people from the negativity surrounding them, you will soon find that you are releasing yourself at the same time.
It is time to pick up your hammer and chisel and get to work. Time waits for nobody. Whatever you have been through in life, whatever hardship you are dealing with now, no matter how thick the wall of ugly stone the world has built around you, now is the time to break free. It all starts with a desire to unlock the work of art you were meant to be.
Grab your tools and let’s get to work!
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