Pounded by the waves

The waves may smack on to the seashore, but they always recede.

There are times in life when circumstances just seem to get on top of you. Sometimes you feel like you're lying on the sand while the waves keep smashing down on you like the highest of high tides.

You feel like you'll never be able to get up again.

Even when it's a spring tide and you feel like the waves are overwhelming and unremitting, hold on to the fact that the waters will recede, because they always do. No matter how many times they knock you over, eventually the waves will die down and the tide will drop.

You'll get the chance to catch your breath again.

Believe it.

Hang on in there.

Look to the light

When you feel like you're stuck in the brambles, raise your eyes to the light. 

Battleground

My list is my battleground.

When I walked away from this page and then came back to it, I could see a battleground. At the moment I have a loooong list. Well, in reality it is two lists, one labelled 'Australia' and the other 'UK'. As I think of things I need to do at one end or other of the journey, I add it to the list.

The longer the list gets, the more stressed I try not to become.

The battleground is not only getting through the list without forgetting anything, but also in my head. When I see the amount of stuff that needs to be done, I can easily feel overwhelmed. As the days tick by and I wait for all the financials to fall into place, it is all too easy to start to worry.

But then I have to remember that this is what we're supposed to be doing. This also isn't the first time we've made such an epic journey and God brought us through it in an amazing way.

I lived through this battle once. I just have to trust, and I'll get through it again.

The gap

I read a great post by Seth Godin that made me think. He talked about the gap between where we are and where we want to be.

Are you looking at the gap as a moat? Something uncrossable?

Looking at this page, for me the gap seems to be a question of height. This is probably because I'm short - when I have to climb things, sometimes the footholds feel very far apart for my short legs :)

So how do I move over the gap?

I need to build a ladder with steps of the right distance apart. In other words, I need to plan a way to get there in short steps. After all, who says I have to cover the distance in one go? Yes, there's a gap between where I am and where I want to be, but day by day, I can get closer.

Heatwave!

We're in the middle of a heatwave here in South Australia. I'm fighting against the paint drying on the brush - when I have the energy to do anything at all.

People keep delighting in telling us that we will be going back to a UK winter and that it will be really cold. I say bring it on! At least in the cold I can add another layer. In the heat there's only so much you can take off...

Resolution

Waiting for resolution of the unknowns.

This page reminded me of water. There are a couple of obstacles in it, but they don't block the way completely: there's a way through. But if I was 'standing' at a different angle, it might look like they formed a complete barrier.  If you can't see the way through, move your point of view, look from another angle.

Uprooting

When a plant is in an unfavourable or inconvenient spot, or when it has outgrown its pot, it needs to be moved. That means disturbing the roots, maybe even breaking some of them off. The best time to do this is outside of the main growing period - for most plants this is during winter. The leaves have been shed and the plant is dormant.

When we need to move on it may not be a time of slow growth, but there is something to be said for shedding the extraneous before a move.

Uprooting.

It's unsettling. Disturbing. Uncomfortable.

But sometimes it's necessary.

Letting go

Moving house is a good excuse to do some serious 'spring' cleaning. When everything has to fit into a shipping container and you're going to have to unpack all those boxes at the other end, you want to make sure that you really want that book, that tube of paint, that chipped plate you've been using as a palette, etc. etc.

When you have space, it's easy to hang on to things 'just in case'. Moving house makes you look at each item and realise that you haven't used it in an age and aren't likely to, either. So I've been boxing up, giving away, or selling a whole heap of stuff.

Don't get me wrong, we're not turning into minimalists. With a clergyman, an artist, and a writer in the house, we have a LOT of books and DVDs - after all, storytelling is important to all of us. Our little pruning venture has got rid of several cubic metres, but our shelves still look full.

Letting go hasn't left us with nothing - it has cleaned out a whole heap of stuff that was no longer useful.

Feeling...

My art journal is a place to work out my feelings, make a note of something I want to remember, practice new techniques, use new supplies, and sometimes just... play.

I don't always know what sort of page it will be when I start out. Sometimes it isn't until I come to do the journalling that I realise what it's all about. Other times I just jot down whatever comes to mind with no reference to the art on the page.

How do you use your art journal?

Lining up

When you undertake a house move, there's a lot to organise. When that move is to the other side of the world, well, it takes on another layer of madness. The one thing I'm reminding myself at the moment is that we've done this before and survived, so we can do it again.

It's good when you start to see things lining up and falling into place. Many things are now sorted and my lists are beginning to look more manageable, for which I am very grateful.

Trying new stuff

Do you ever make art journal pages that get away from you?

This one was a screaming hot mess. It needed calming down. It needed a lot of black.

What better time to have a go at doing something in a different style? I had come across an illustration by Kareem Iliya done with watercolour and ink that intrigued me. There was little detail and big blocks of black, but the face could still be read. Could I achieve that?

Practicing my 'must be bolder' mission, I went straight in with waterproof ink. Once I was pleased with the placement of everything, I went over it with acrylic paint. It calmed the page and I'm pleased with the result and would definitely try something in this style again.

How do you calm down your pages when they start screaming?

We all need a little white space

We live in a world that applauds life lived at a frantic pace. Each waking minute must be filled with activity. Full schedules are a badge of honour. Even children are hustled from school to music lessons to sports practice.

Where's the space to read for fun, to stare off into space, to play?

We all need a sabbath break, a little white space.

In art, white space gives the eye a place to rest. In life, we need space in our diaries. Space to say, 'Yes, I can do coffee this afternoon' or 'come on over and let's talk about it'. When all the squares on your calendar are full, you don't have any slack when people need someone to talk to. How much do you appreciate it when you need to talk and you have someone who will sit with you and not be constantly looking at their watch/phone because they have somewhere else to be? Someone who is genuinely listening because they aren't rushed.

You can't be that person to someone else if there is no white space in your life.

Make 2018 the year when you slow down and make space.