You may know that I do a lot of work in the tech sector.  But not all of my work.  Over the past year I have been working with leaders at the Royal Academy of Arts and last week before I left the building I took the opportunity to see the famous painting, ‘Flaming June’ by Leighton.

I was curious to see the painting because I’ve seen reproductions of it.  I even once – when I was much younger and had much longer hair – had a card bearing this picture sent to me by a boyfriend ‘because it reminded him of me’!  (I’ve always valued my sleep)

Like anything, the reality is way more impressive than any photograph or reproduction.

It’s quite large – bigger than I was expecting – and the colours are startlingly bright.  I stood and admired it for a minute or two and enjoyed just taking it in.

Why is this my inspiration of the week?

Because it reminded me that the Real Thing is always worth a few minutes of our time.  Or a an hour or two.  Or a day.  You can look at the photo of ‘Flaming June’ and think you’ve seen it.  But you haven’t.  Not really.

The same applies to anything you look up online.

My question is, where can you benefit from the Real Thing?  Live theatre or music?  An in-person meeting?  A hardback book instead of an e-reader?  Food cooked from scratch instead of a takeaway?

(And if you do want to see Flaming June for real, here’s a link to get the details of the exhibition:  https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/flaming-june )