In Our Hearts

      Is art something that has been placed in our hearts? Is any interest acquired at a young age a desire found from within us or was it an early impression imprinted on us from an experience or role model? Although most probably a mixture of both, I would like to claim that art for me, was a desire that consumed my heart from an early age. Why was it art that I sought to learn more about? What was it that made me want to try and draw something for hours on end? What was it that wanted me to perfect my coloring book pages? What was it that made the Renaissance artist, Filippo Lippi draw on his and his friends textbooks, events that lead the prior of the Carmine in Florence to give him a chance at painting. What was it that made Giotto sit and draw lifelike pictures of sheep as a Shepard boy until he was discovered by Cimabue? The answers we'll never know for certain, origins of our interests can be something psychologically examined but I have a strange feeling that it is simply a desire placed in our hearts. But who placed it there? A question which's answer took me through a roller coaster of a journey, but has lead me to honestly and faithfully state, God. God placed this desire in my heart. Sometimes god makes his will known to us from the desires he places in our hearts, although not all desires come from him, through prayer and devotion we can distinguish between what is his voice speaking to us and what is temptation's. Alas, I am guilty of listening to all desires placed in my heart, but who isn't, eh? I know I can be eternally grateful for receiving the desire to seek art, without this light in my life, I'm not sure what road I would have stumbled down.