Where Your Treasure Is

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Photo Dec 08, 9 45 36 PMWhat is your goal? What are you looking for? What is the motivation for what you are doing? What is the most important thing for you to obtain? Why am I asking all these questions?

It is healthy to perform an evaluation of our motives in the things we do and what we want to accomplish. Humans have the capacity to align their behaviors based on their goals and behave accordingly. Our goals are informed by our values and how we measure success in our lives. Those same goals will determine our view in life and how we conduct ourselves with others.

Our society sadly measures a successful life based on money. It only takes one quick look at all those wealthy celebrities who are suffering illnesses, depression, depending on medications and illegal drugs, and even taking their own lives. I might sound like a credit card commercial but indeed there are many things money can’t buy.

I personally believe that relationships are more important than things. I believe that touching other people with my art and when I teach is more important than getting paid (that doesn’t mean I work for free or give away my art). Making  a difference in someone’s life is more important to me than money or recognition. Connections with people are more important to me than selling many pieces of art. Yes, selling art is nice. It is my job, as it is teaching, but money can’t be the focus of what I do.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:21

Comments (6)

  1. Katie

    I couldn’t agree more. Take away all material possessions, money and substances that act as a cruch for some sense of false happiness and what’s left? Everything we’ve used those things to run from because too many of us are scared to learn about who we are deep down. We are too scared to admit our flaws and insecurities. Fear of rejection is something we already feel, who wants to admit defects that could possibly create more feelings of self defeat. We are terrified to who we are and listen to our bodies telling us what is right for us. We do have the answers we need inside, just have to take courage even if it’s not felt and walk through fear of the unknown. When the pain gets great enough we becoming willing to do something different. When we begin to look inside and face what we’ve been running from, start building on that, we start building a foundation for ourselves. We learn how to acknowledge and be who we are to the best of our ability toward all the things we treasure and make our soul shine. A beautiful perspective is gained and we understand that flaws and “mistakes” are a big part of what makes us beautiful. Thank you for posting. I love reading them.

    • Dr Ivan Tirado

      Thank you so much for your comment. We are like a book and we are writing our story. I hope that with ups and downs we could get a happy ending. It is a pleasure to share.

  2. Walter Paul Bebirian

    well – I cannot say that I am able to answer any of your questions – it is interesting to me that you wrote this on my 65th birthday and that I have been photographing and creating art since my 8th birthday and even before –

    I know that sometimes I have caught glimpses of different visions where I see that in some way I have gone beyond where I might otherwise be if I remained working with one physical medium or photography as it was in the days of film and processing – but because of the digital world – the computers – working with Photoshop and iPads and all of these opportunities that were thrust in front of me – I have picked them up – embraced them and have seen that I could advance so much further by letting go of so much of the physical limitations that I might otherwise have by simply working only with pure energy – this is where I am and in some sense I am caught in suspended animation where everything is stopped and at the same time so much more than otherwise possible is going on – it is an infinite exploratory trip where there are no limits to the directions that I am going in all at the same exact moment in time and I do not want to focus at all since there is to me no real reason to do so – there is so much to see and so much to do in all the directions that I am going in all at the same time and so many more directions for me to go in as each new moment arrives- and most of all I certainly do not ever want to leave this plain since there is so much more for me to see here every step of the way with so many new things coming around each and every corner –

    I do feel a certain overwhelm that I am able to share these images that I am in the midst of creating – with just about anyone in the world who is willing to view them – since I do still remember the feeling that I had when I took my very first photograph some 57 years ago – — I was totally amazed that I had just taken my very first image with my very own Brownie Camera and I wondered about this – whether anyone in the world would ever see this image that I had taken –

    I was at the time very lucky to be able to see all the images being shown in Life and Look and National Geographic Magazines – I believe that they were my window to the world outside of where I was but then how did this one simple image that I had created on that day – fit into that world of images – and then the art that I was creating even before that – how did it – or would it fit into the world of the great museums that were in Manhattan that I was so fortunate to be able to see with such ease – how did my work or would my work ever fit into what I was seeing – or what was showing way back then and still how will it ever fit into that which makes up the world of art museums and galleries that we are shown today –

    I am not sure – if my work will ever quite fit in but I am now very sure that at least a great number of people – way more than I had ever imagined that day that I first took a photograph – even existed on the planet – what did I know of such big numbers back then – and even today – it is way beyond my comprehension how I might get to share what I create with the over 7 billion people living on this planet and the so many more to come as time goes on – but I will certainly try at least by perservering as long and as hard and as persistently as I possibly can –

    • Dr Ivan Tirado

      Thank you so much, Walter for sharing your story. It is inspirational to me and fascinating. I hope to say one day that I sculpted that long. It is a privilege indeed.

  3. marie

    Hi, i would like to say money is a fact of life, if you do not make money or are supported by the government, i am sorry you virtually die. What is important is to have a family and an income. Work provides a person with the basic necessities of life, only. A home, food and money to pay the bills, beyond this, not many people have more, this is a fact. What the bible says is that money makes more money, i think this is why people somehow all do their best to spend other peoples money and save their money. The fact is so many celebrities, use drugs and are big spenders because when you have to much of anything you abuse money and people, in their case the celebrities are been abused by the material society we live in. At the same time the celebrities are been ungrateful for the circumstances they find themselves in. So abusing themselves because too much money makes you lose control of your life.

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