Embracing the quiet times

Life can be so busy. Nowadays, if we're not busy we can start to feel guilty - as if we should be doing something. We have lots of leisure time but fill it up with activity. 

I've had a busy week, but there have been pockets of quiet - such as ten minutes waiting for our daughter to come out of the zoo - when I've savoured the chance to breathe deep and slow down. I just sat with my pocket journal and sketched a quick face and made a note of my thoughts. It took two minutes, and then I spent the rest of the time watching those around me and just enjoying being outdoors. Just breathing in the fresh air and being still. 

When I got home, I transferred the idea from my pocket journal to this page as a reminder to enjoy times of waiting.

Evaluating

I'm a bit pushed for time this week, so I pulled out a background that had been sitting there for a while and journalled some thoughts on to it.

I love the way you can work on pages over days, weeks, even months, and nothing goes to waste.

The journalling reads, 'When looking at what has yet to be achieved, don't forget to take into account past victories. Look to how far you have already come as well as how far is yet to go.'

Sometimes we can feel overwhelmed by what is ahead and how far there is yet to go, but it is good to take stock of how far we have already come. We shouldn't belittle what has already been achieved just because there is further to go. Savour each victory and achievement. It will give you encouragement to keep going.

Summer of Colo(u)r - week one

It's that time of year again - Summer of Colo(u)r is here! (Or rather, summer is in the northern hemisphere. Here in Australia it's winter, but we can still have some fun with colour, can't we?) Join in the fun for the next few weeks. Each week a basic palette is given from which you can create in any media you like. 

This week is two blues and a green. I put together a very quick page as it's a busy week for me. You can see how quick it is in the time-lapse video below - a mere 18seconds! Which translates into less than ten minutes in real time. You can fit art into the odd moments if you really try :)

The dark blue across the middle made me think of a wave, so the journalling says 'Sometimes I feel adrift… but feelings can lie.' I might feel adrift, but in truth I am always anchored.

Look and See part 2

This is the second part of my spread in Claudia's journal on the theme looking. My idea was to look at the difference between looking and seeing.

To look is to 'direct one's gaze towards' which is different from seeing. Seeing involves perceiving and understanding. Looking just puts something in front of your eyes.

Anyway, today is a long weekend holiday here in South Australia, so this will be going in the post tomorrow.

Making beads

Busy making paper beads this week. Below you can see a few sets of paper cut and ready to go. 

I particularly like the beads above which are made from National Geographics treated with Citrasolv (thank you, Becky W. for those!) They look like agate.

Look and See part 1

This month I am working on Claudia's journal for the round robin/circle journal. Her theme is Looking.

I am working on a double page, one side will be 'look' and the other, which is the one shown here, is 'see'. I wanted to look at the difference between the two things.

The tag on this page opens like a door. On the reverse it says, 'To look and to see are two very different things.' To see is to perceive, to discern. It encompasses understanding of what is being looked at - something that involves the brain as well as the eyes. Which, now I've written it, makes me wish I had incorporated a picture of the brain, but that would have led to a very different page...

Live generously

This page already had the gelli-print on it when I came to it in my journal. I kept looking at the trees and thinking about the way the branches spread outwards and upwards. I was also keeping in mind my word for the year - flourish.

To flourish, I need to live generously, spreading outwards and upwards, letting God prune me as He will to increase my fruitfulness in the right areas. He will shape me, but I need to grow and plant seeds, otherwise there is nothing to prune and nothing to harvest.

Distilled

'We do not necessarily improve with age: for better or worse we become more like ourselves.'
Peter Hall

Hmm. If I am distilled as I age, what is being deepened and made more concentrated in me? I can hope for grace, mercy, humility, love, but if I'm not showing them now… It's like drying an apple and expecting it to taste like an apricot.

Pruning

No-one likes to be pruned, but it happens. One of the things that I realised on my recent retreat was that only fruitful branches are pruned. Those that are unfruitful are cut out all together.

So now I can rejoice in the pruning, knowing that it means I am already fruitful in that area, and that I am being prepared to bear more fruit.

Threads

I'm never quite sure what to do when I reach a black page in my junque journals. Should I cover up most of the background with colour, or go minimal?

I had some black washi tape, so I started with that. I liked the white so went with it, tracing round the edge of a linked rings mask in two opposing corners. I didn't feel like adding colour to the rings, so doodled in them instead.

When I was finished with the doodling, it looked as if the two areas of pattern were reaching out to each other, so I linked them with a few lines.

My imagination kicked in, and I thought about the lines being stitches - if the thread was drawn tight, it would pull the two patterns together. If we want to draw together in community, we need to look for the things that will draw us together, the sameness rather than the differences. After all, we are all more alike than different.