Celebrate the everyday not just the big stuff.
This page has a fizzy, fireworks feel to me. It speaks of celebration. I think we should celebrate the small things, just as we should be thankful for small things. If you only wait for the big things think of all the thankfulness and celebration you miss out on.
When life gets hectic, breathe, and remember that it will ease.
Christmas should be a wonderful time of peace and goodwill. However, it can be a time of chaos, busyness, and stress if we don't marshal our energy and diary in times of quiet. Sometimes the busyness is unavoidable - four church services in two days is busy and not what I would choose, but is necessary at this time of year. Just stopping to consciously breathe can make all the difference when things get a little overwhelming and too peopley.
It is a small reset that reminds our body to relax. When that tension ebbs away, it takes some of the anxiety with it.
So remember to breathe.
I was thinking about adopting a word for the year. As I went through some words that might fit the bill, I came up with 'connect', 'breathe', and 'grow', and then realised that they are all words about living/being alive, so I ended up with a phrase instead: 'live, don't stagnate'.
I may still end up with a word, or I may stick with the phrase. For now I'm going to sit with it for a while and see what happens.
What sucks you in? What captures you?
I could see two 'purple holes' in this page, wanting to suck me in. They made me think about what captures us. I find it hilarious that, in this digitally connected world, my screen time on my phone is logged in minutes - usually less than ten per day. If I am waiting somewhere, I don't pull out my phone, I read a book. A proper, print on paper book. Or I knit or crochet if the weather is cooler. Zach stuck a sticker on my laptop that reads 'analogue girl, digital world'.
I get sucked in to books, to ideas, to creativity. I want to end this life knowing that I have contributed to the real life of real people in tangible ways, not frittered away my time on things that don't matter. Now I'm not saying that spending time in rest and recreation is bad - it obviously isn't. I'm just aware of how much time can be sucked away if we end up going down an unprofitable rabbit-hole.
As we approach the beginning of a new year it's a good time to think about how we use our time and what we will allow to capture our imagination.
What do people see if they pull back the curtain?
Are you like the wizard in The Wizard of Oz? Is what people see of you the way you are when you are alone? Do your public and private selves match?
These are questions of authenticity.
One of the nicest things one of our congregation said to my husband was that he didn't 'put on his vicar self' when he put on his robes. He is the same on Sundays as the rest of the week. Which is how it is meant to be. When our public and private selves match, life is a lot less stressful because we are not trying to keep a mask on. Yes, it can make us vulnerable. Yes, people will see our faults. But isn't that better than than the strain of trying to keep up a false image?
Compounding.
All those little things together add to and augment each other. Usually we think of it in terms of finances - compound interest growing more quickly than simple interest - but it works with other things, too. If we improve a little bit in several steps of a process, there is compounding, making the final result even better. Rather than trying to make a big improvement in something, maybe there are a few small changes you can make to compound together and achieve that bigger goal. If you want to walk for an extra hour a week it may feel overwhelming to do all in one go. But if you do ten minutes for six days a week, it is achievable. Small increments add together.
"You're not always going to agree with everything you hear, but you've got to start by listening."
Will Guidara.
I'm reading a great book at the moment called Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara. It's about his life in the restaurant business, but a lot of the lessons he has learned are applicable to daily life. I particularly liked this quote. If we all just listened more, we might find we actually agree on more than we think we do. Don't decide beforehand, but listen without judgement and without jumping in with your own comments. It is one of the most precious things we can do for each other, to truly listen. Even if we don't agree, the fact that we have listened shows that we respect the other person no matter our difference of opinion. And the world could do with more respect.
I'm posting less at the moment as things ramp up in the bookshop and Christmas approaches. That doesn't mean that I'm not arting as much as usual, though. This is another A3 piece as I find that I'm really enjoying working at this size at the moment. They're more detailed than my journal pages, and I love how 'clean' the border makes them look. Sometimes I create a border on my journal pages as well, but often I just jump straight in with the colour :) Talking of which, I'm really pleased with this palette. I've pulled some leaves out of the garden that have these vivid reds and oranges - so bright they almost don't look real - and they make me smile.
What colours are making you smile at the moment?
Jumping through the hoops.
There are times where it feels like you're having to do ridiculous things; things that feel superfluous or obvious or a downright waste of time. But you have to jump through the hoops if you want the system to work for you. Things go more smoothly if you follow through on all the steps and don't try to take shortcuts. So my advice is to fill in those forms in good time; don't leave it until the last minute.
Here comes summer. How do I know? A 38C day, that's how. Thankfully the next day was back down in the low twenties and a cool breeze blew through the house when I opened the doors and windows. Thank heaven for screen doors.
I still find it strange that we are ramping up for a hot summer when everyone else is cooling down for Christmas.
Don't lose sight of the main thing.
It's easy to do. We focus on the small details and miss the really important thing.
Sometimes we do it because we become sidetracked.
Sometimes we are avoiding the main thing.
It helps to step back and check that you're still focused on the right point and not going off track.
Get out of the rut.
It's easy to get stuck in an artistic rut, doing the same things over and over and over. There's nothing wrong with that if you're still learning new things, but sometimes you feel stuck rather than in the flow. To get out of that state I decided to do something with no paint. It's a simple page, but made me think differently about how I put the page together. There may be more collage in my future...
Exploring a new landscape.
It's always a steep learning curve when you first enter a new landscape, a new area of knowledge. There are 'in' words and acronyms to learn. On first reading nothing makes sense and maybe you panic a little. So you sleep on it, and then read it again, and sense starts to creep in. You calm down a bit and things don't seem so insurmountable once you start to gain a little understanding.
Each time you climb a hill, it gets a bit easier as you get a bit fitter. The trick is not to give up but to celebrate the steady progress and to accept the help that is offered.
