AWAKE MY SOUL

A Curated Life

Traditionally, to curate something, means to carefully choose, arrange and present – typically a museum or art exhibition. But more recently, the term has evolved – whereby anything can be curated, and where the focus is on the effect it creates and the people who consume it (take social media as an example). In my opinion, it is not a bad evolvement of the word, if the curating is done with care. Otherwise the word, as so often happens, loses it’s depth and eloquence to cheap renditions of it’s misuse. The more carefully something is curated, the more magic it holds.

Over the past few years, I have been privileged to discover something about myself. And, funnily enough, it is that is that I love to curate. Bringing the work of peoples’ hands together and presenting them in a way that makes the work shine, and makes other people inspired by looking at it, without necessarily even enjoying the individual pieces of art themselves… knowing that they may be moved, is a very joyful process for me. I have had the honour of doing this several times (pics of the most recent one below), and I absolutely love it… it is one of those things that makes my soul come alive!

And it is at this point that I would like to add some life to the very pragmatic definition of curation that I started with. From my experience, curation is largely about intuition – the ability to understand or know something without even thinking about it. In the case of presenting art works, I find that the whole process of putting work on the walls in a compelling way, comes intuitively to me. And it is this intuition that gives energy to the decision-making process of ‘choosing, arranging and presenting’ – it makes curating an art form in itself. A magical editorial process – an alchemy of art and science.

I guess it was as I begun to understand about the beauty of curating something in a more formal sense, that I realised how we all hold the potential of curating our own lives, whereby we are both the curator and the consumer. Let me explain…

As children most of us went to school, and there we took the subjects we were good at or enjoyed. Then we naturally followed that path and went onto tertiary education, or took a year out, or started our own business, or took over our parents business, or fell in love and got married. Many of us may say that these things were either beyond our control (that includes falling in love;), or that we did the things that were expected of us… expected of us by our families, or by our teachers/ others we respected, or by society, or even by ourselves. In other words life has, to a certain extent, been curated for you.

In the meantime, life more merrily or less merrily slips by, until sooner or later the instinct to stand back and look at ones life kicks in, and that inevitable question, ‘who am I?’ hits us right between the eyes. Here, it may be valid to suggest that you never asked yourself, or were asked what it is that makes your soul come alive? Or that you may have buried deep down that thing that gave you a burning delight where you never had to force it to give you delight. You see, it is this understanding or knowledge of what has been placed within you that is the fire behind the choices you make. I think it’s true to say that sometimes we allow the curating that has been done for us to overtake and provide a reason for us never to be truthful to ourselves, about ourselves. 

What I’m not saying is that we should have complete control over our lives, or that we should even desire that. We cannot control the weather, or other people’s reactions or decisions, or the wallpaper we really wanted to put up no longer being in production. And indeed, the things we cannot control are usually the things that shape our character and produce fruit in our lives. We are certainly not God or mini versions of God.

But! There are some things that we have the absolute privilege of being in charge of… our choices… who we do life with… what we consume… how we react. And it is in this space that I believe we are in the most amazing position to curate our own lives. What I do not mean, is heading for a life that looks like everybody else’s – that would surely be falling into the expectation trap again. It is also not gunning for a life that looks better than everybody else’s… that is just plain snobbery. I find it incredible how so many people don’t realise they are on that pathway (myself included from time to time). 

What I do mean, is connecting to those things which make your soul come alive (it may well be that it’s not the same thing as when you were 11 or 25), and allowing that knowledge to inform your decisions, and how you ‘arrange’ your life. 

So that when you stand back and look at the Art Exhibition of Your Life, it feels as though someone has sketched you by looking through your eyes and into the corners of your soul, and reflects you back so authentically that it makes you feel utterly understood.

So what does A Curated Life look like? I can only note on this based on my opinion. Not from any scientific research, but rather from my experiences and reflections…

A Curated Life is an intentional one – it links what we hold true in the deepest part of ourselves, to how we express ourselves and the lives we lead.

It means aligning your convictions and intentions. Where do your convictions lie and how important are they to you? I believe that your convictions – simply put, the things you believe in – should be the soil from which all your decisions and actions grow.

It means asking yourself the difficult questions. Getting to know yourself… uncovering buried treasure! What are the threads that make the tapestry of your personality and character? Do you have dreams or ideas or wishes that you’ve ignored because they just seem too unachievable? 

It means getting alongside people that will help or encourage you to achieve them. Accountability is an amazing informal structure that can be found in friends… people you trust enough not to be offended when they are honest with you. For those who are married, I’m pretty sure you’ll find it in your spouse.

It means understanding that what you consume, will consume you. What I mean here, is that when you choose to look at or partake in something, you are agreeing to that being in your life. This is often important when the curation is one that happens in the heart (where it doesn’t necessarily require physical action at all). This could be about a friendship that is toxic, the movies or books you are in to, the amount of alcohol you drink, the advise you choose to take… the list is endless.  

It means knowing that what you put in, is what you will get out. Nobody else is going to do it for you. This might look like recording your goals, and making lists of practical steps to get there. It may mean making small, achievable promises to yourself, one at a time (this may be very important when it comes to habits you want to break, or new ones you would like to develop).

Most importantly, A Curated Life often looks like sacrifice and chaos and letting go and stubborn headed persistence. Rarely does it look perfect, or enviable. And hand-in-hand with that, it may look like making mistakes and learning from them, and choosing to move forward again. This takes guts and grit, but these type of people are some of the true heroes in life.

lot of surprise, and some question marks over our decision. There were the people who declared that Eugene would have to start all over again with his business upon his return. There were those who told us we were irresponsible to take our children into Africa because it’s so dangerous. But we also got those people who were amazed at our decision, and who have encouraged us and stood by us, trusting with us that everything will work out (you know who you are, you angels). When we made the decision, there was no indecision involved, we just knew it was something we had to do… actually, it was long overdue. And in fact, making the decision felt like magic – it was liberating.  

If I’m honest though, there are things that we allowed to stop us over the years. Financial ones. Commitment ones. Ones that came because of overthinking. And indeed, there have been countless people who have said to us, ‘You are doing the thing we always talk about doing, and find every reason not to do.’

The opposite of curated is unchosen, uncompiled. In terms of what we are talking about, it leans towards passivity. But I want to encourage you… my guess is that there are already things in your life that are curated, but you just didn’t know it… those things that you just love, you can’t help but be drawn to them… classic movies, fine wine, walking in forests, crime novels, Italian food, chocolate, dancing in the rain, eating a meal with good friends, jazz, motorbikes… all those things make your life exquisitely unique, and so beautiful to behold. 

It’s in the things that you love but don’t know how to activate or perhaps don’t want to because you are afraid to, that this article refers to. I would like to leave you with the lyrics of a song by Mumford and Sons,

In these bodies we will live,

In these bodies we will die.

Where you invest your love,

You invest your life.

… so profoundly simple. I would ask us, are we moved enough by our convictions to allow them to shape the decisions we make? Are we brave enough to step out of the ordinary? Do we need to take ourselves to the top of a mountain and shout to the wind, ‘Awake my Soul!’, and breathe in the fresh air of determination it will take to live a life that is a true reflection of what has been placed in us and how we have been created?

Leading a curated life doesn’t necessarily promise to be easy. But I promise you, it’s where the magic happens.