Energy Exchange
Currency, noun, cur·ren·cy, “circulation as a medium of exchange,” from the Latin root word “currere," which means "to flow."
This week I had an epiphany which might seem obvious: money just another form of currency, and we deal in currencies, or exchanges, in every relationship we have with every thing we experience and interact with. For some reason, this really has helped me neutralize my emotionally-charged relationship with money. (Maybe you’ve experienced a similar kind of rocky relationship with money, too?)
Just think about it - we exchange kindnesses, gifts (even if we don’t receive a physical gift in return, we still “get” something out of the exchange), we expend physical energy in return for a result, like a garden, or changing our bodies, or going someplace new, etc. etc. etc. We deal in all of these forms of currency, and we choose to spend our energies, our currencies, on things we think are valuable. And money is just one way, one currency, with which to exchange energy.
Money as a Positive Force
I grew up believing money was evil and not something to be desired or prioritized. It’s taken years to break this belief down, and to at least get money to a neutral status in my mind and heart. But then, what to replace that old belief with? Money just being a neutral… thing… wasn’t very compelling. I still wanted more of it and still felt bad for the wanting.
But then I took the “Five Whys” approach to why I wanted to sell my art in the first place. I knew that “because I want to make art for a living” wasn’t compelling enough because I’ve been at this for almost a decade and am still not making art for a living. Something wasn’t working, and has been holding me back from making enough money at art to, at the very least, sustain myself in this society. I needed a reason that resonated with me on a much deeper level.
And I discovered it.
Those Five Whys ended up taking me way beyond money, to the reciprocity of Life itself. I realized that making art is the small way I give thanks for being alive, the tiny way I can celebrate the immensity of the mountains, the glory of the sky, the magnificence of trees, the delicacy of wildflowers, the beauty of water, the swelling joy of being physically and emotionally close to another being.
My art is my offering to Life.
And my hope is that Life accepts that small offering, small in comparison to the gift of Life itself, and that Life has led you here to celebrate It with me through my art, and to exchange in the currency of inspiration, hope, and joy. Happily, you don’t need money to participate in that exchange.
But, I want to sell my art because I want you to be able to have and hold a physical artifact of my discovery, adventure, hope, and revelry in Life itself. And by giving me money in exchange for that artifact, you are pouring energy into my creative force and empowering me to make more art. (Practically speaking, you’re also exchanging physical room in my studio for me to make more art!)
Framed this way, money becomes a powerful tool for culture and all that is good in the world! “Voting with your dollars” never held so much meaning to me as it does now. We get to decide what matters, we get so many choices as to how we spend our money, it becomes both mundane and a miracle that we can exchange this seemingly arbitrary number for something that moves us, that we care deeply about, or for the little things that hold our lives together. Money plays a part in what kind of bread we prefer at the grocery store to what kind of art hangs on our walls.
Framed this way, I get to hold the number in my bank account with open hands, to recognize it’s just one form of currency, that it’s not something to be grasped but welcomed. I am open to exchanging all kinds of energies, and money just happens to be one of them!
Money is a particularly powerful kind of currency, but as I’ve said, we exchange energy in all kinds of ways. In what ways can you give energy to the beautiful, lovely things that you enjoy in your life?
