Connect

Reach out. Radiate. Connect. These are the things that came to me when this page was almost done. Each of the circles is connecting with another. There are radiating lines and lines that reach out.

There is connection, but also a yearning for more connection.

Too often we can become insular; happy with our own little group. We need to have open communities that welcome in new people, indeed that reach out to welcome others in.

Bride

Do your backgrounds ever get out of control? That's what happened here. There were too many colours, too many patterns, and whatever I added just made it worse.

So I grabbed a silhouette mask and slapped on some black. Much better.

A bit of outlining with white, some details, and now I love it! She reminds me of a bride. Maybe some thoughts will occur to me and some journalling will be added. Maybe not. I like the page as is for the moment.

Joining all the lovely folks at Paint Party Friday. 

Don't look back

I was experimenting with eyes that weren't looking straight on. This one left the girl looking back, as if trying not to turn her head, but still wanting to know what was going on behind her.

How often do we live like that?

When my daughter was learning to ride a bike, we had a period where I would be holding on to the back of the bike and she would be pedalling but looking back at me. Of course, she couldn't steer straight with her head bent round to look behind her all the time, so ended up going in circles. We both went back inside feeling a bit cranky.

If we go through life constantly looking back, we miss what's going on ahead of us. We can't walk a straight line or plough a straight furrow. Yes, we need to learn from the past and acknowledge how our own personal history affects who we are and how we behave, but we don't need to live there anymore.

So, be aware of what's behind, but make your focus on what's ahead.

Misty mornings

It's January, and I miss the misty mornings, the crunch of frost underfoot at the beginning of the day. The collaged piece of trees from a calendar just made me nostalgic.

Bridge or sky?

I was happily playing away with this page with no aim in mind and when I stood back I could see a bridge across a deep chasm.

Not only did I have a bridge, but there were also birds in there.

Hmm. What was this page saying?

'Are you going to use the bridge, or are you going to fly?' it seemed to be asking me.

What's the difference? I thought.

Well, a bridge is already set out. It goes from one point to another with no deviation, unless you want to fall. The destination is already set and so is the journey to it.

If you fly, you may choose a way across the chasm. You're not tied down to a particular beginning, ending, or path. And if your wings get tired, you can always take a rest on the bridge.

I think I'm going to choose to fly.

Sharing with all the lovely folks at Paint Party Friday.

Moving or standing still?

Just because it feels as if you're standing still doesn't mean that you're not moving.

The black portions on the left of this page are cut from a time-lapse photo of the sky. It is the movement of stars. Or, rather, the relative 'movement' of stars because of the rotation of the earth. Yet we don't feel the movement of the earth. It feels as if we're standing still. It is only when we look over time that we can see that there has been movement.

Life can feel like that. We feel as if we're not moving, but if we take a look back we might find that the reality is different.

Just because you feel it doesn't mean that it's real.

Who knows?

Who knows? Sometimes you just have to take a chance.

Leap in and see what happens.

Don't become pot-bound

I was having fun putting all the different colours and textures on this page, when I had the urge to add stamped leaves. I resisted to start with, having done quite a few pages lately with these leaves on it. But you know how it is when the urge takes hold. So the leaves went down in one corner. It felt like a pot plant to me, so I made it so 😊

Once the plant was on there, I had to ask myself why. Why was it particularly a plant in a pot?

If we grow but don't move forward, it is easy to become pot-bound. A plant needs to be in a pot with room to grow. Not so large that it is lost within it, but large enough that it can put its roots in more deeply and stretch a little.

Are you in a pot-bound situation? Have you outgrown where you are?

What can you do about it?

Sharing with Paint Party Friday. Come along and join in the fun!

Two lessons from lightning

Two lessons from lightning today. I had a piece of paper from an old calendar that I wanted to use for collage. It was too large for one page, so I tore it in half and made two pages. 

The first one is about inspiration. There are so many people who seem to wait around for inspiration to strike. But really, hard work and inspiration go together. If you want to be struck by lightning, you need to be out in the storm. 

The second one is about energy. Lightning is not really directed. It is a burst of unrestrained energy that goes off in all directions. In life we need to direct our energy because it is a limited resource. Sometimes we go down dead-end paths but we can learn from that so that the energy we used isn't wasted, and then we can be more directed. 

Growth and what it leads to

This page went through a few changes. Partway through I covered the whole lot with gesso, muting all the colours and blending things better than I was managing to before that.

You might notice that some of the branches on the left are darker than the others. They are left over from before the gesso. I used them as a springboard for the new incarnation of the page, letting more branches grow until there was a tree. New growth sprang through on the tree.

I stood back and noticed a door. What was that all about? In the foreground was a tree sprouting into growth, but behind it a door letting in light. Was there a link between the two?

Hmm.

I contemplated.

Then I journalled: Look beyond the growth - what door is it opening?

Whenever we grow in some area, new doors are open to us. If we gain a new skill or qualification, new work or areas of service open up. When we grow, we are able to do different things or do things differently. Life is dynamic, not static. With growth, there are new doors, new pathways, new possibilities on the journey.

So when you experience an obvious period of growth, ask yourself what new door is opening.

Sing to the Lord a new song!

I used some different media on this page. There is a bit of acrylic paint in the turquoise circle at the left, in the gelli-printed labels at the top, and in the black flowing lines. But there is also some ink and a lot of coloured pencil.

Once all the colour was down on the page, it just spoke to me of praise and singing, hence the journalling. And the journalling made me remember my word for the year - leap. What new things am I going to leap into this year? What new song can I sing?

Sharing with Paint Party Friday.