Angel in the rock

Posted on 28 May 2009 12:56am in Inspiration

There is an interesting anecdote told about Michelangelo. He had just begun work on his masterpiece David chiseling away at a huge block of marble. People who passed by looked at what he was doing and remarked: “Oh, he’s making a statue.” A young boy was particularly intrigued by what he saw. There was no sign of a statue – all he could see was an old man working painstakingly on a piece of rock. So he asked Michelangelo what he was really doing. The great master looked at the boy and said with a smile: “There’s an angel inside this rock. I’m setting him free.”

Michelangelo saw an angel where others saw a rock. He was working to set the angel free while others thought he was making a statue.

In due time, the statue was completed and people looked at it in awe. It was breathtakingly beautiful – a majestic work of art. They then looked at the hands that had shaped the statue and then at the master himself. “It’s wonderful!” they exclaimed. “You’re a genius!”

Michelangelo smiled again and simply said, “If you knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.”

How right!

We all have a David, an angel, inside us. The angel is hiding, waiting to be discovered, wanting to be revealed. Geniuses have found their angels. Every great person in history has found and followed their own inner angel. You and I can find ours too. All it takes is a realization that there’s an angel within and some work to reveal the angel.

Yes, it takes work. Ask Michelangelo, Thomas Edison, Bill Gates. It takes work. Ask a farmer who’s weeding the crops. It takes work. Ask a woman who has just given birth to a baby. It takes work!

It takes work to be a genius, and it takes work for a genius to reveal his angel. But it won’t seem like work. When you are out to explore your potential and uncover your genius, it won’t seem like work. Because it isn’t. It is a mission. A mission worth accomplishing.

Find your angel.

All the best.

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