"SHOW UP, BE KIND, LEARN, REPEAT," FRIDA KAHLO

Flow (www.flowmagazine.com), a magazine that I like, has a cover that reads:  

SHOW UP

BE KIND

LEARN

REPEAT

The words are by Frida Kahlo (1907-1954). What a wonderful life motto. It's not enough on its own of course. There are situations when the path is not so straightforward that to simply show up and be kind is sufficient.  She knew that.  From polio and a bus accident, she lived with pain.  But it never hurts, does it, to show up and be kind?  I bet most of us do that already.  When this motto is part of our lives, surely we are better people.  I would like to visit the blue house where she lived.  It is now a museum.   

La Casa Azul, Coyoacan, Mexico City

Many of us know Frida Kahlo as a painter of self-portraits and works inspired by nature and Mexican artifacts.  And as the wife of the muralist Diego Rivera.  She said, "I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone and because I am the person I know best."  Isn't that beautiful and brave?  Doesn't it combine the pleasure and pain of aloneness?  

But she also was a diarist and her letters, poems and notes have been published.  I like a passage by her that reads more like poetry than prose: 

I USED TO THINK I WAS THE STRANGEST PERSON IN THE WORLD

BUT THEN I THOUGHT THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD,

THERE MUST BE SOMEONE JUST LIKE ME

WHO FEELS BIZARRE AND FLAWED IN THE SAME WAYS I DO.

I WOULD IMAGINE HER, AND IMAGINE THAT SHE

MUST BE OUT THERE THINKING OF ME, TOO.

WELL, I HOPE THAT IF YOU ARE OUT THERE AND READ THIS

AND KNOW THAT, YES, IT'S TRUE I'M HERE,

AND I'M JUST AS STRANGE AS YOU. 

I don't know why exactly this interesting woman and artist thought she was strange.  Or why she thought of her strangeness as a flaw.  But I like that she is seeking connections.  That she believes in connections.  I love the idea that "there must be someone just like me." 

As her pain increased Kahlo painted from her wheelchair.  But she took her limitations in stride.  She said, "Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly." Imagine that.  I wish we could all look at our limitations that way.

Kahlo did not like American "high society."  She said, "I feel a bit of rage against all these rich guys here, since I have seen thousands of people in the most terrible misery without anything to eat and with no place to sleep . . . it is terrifying to see the rich having parties day and night while thousands and thousands of people are dying of hunger." 

We don't have to be political to have some of those feelings.   Most of us try to use our money and time in an ethical way, keeping ourselves and our families healthy and strong, paying fair wages and helping others less fortunate.  That's part of being kind. I need to make time to study Frida Kahlo more.  Not as a chore but as something I will enjoy.  And her motto--that I will take to heart.  Thank you, interesting woman.  Nina Naomi