Some Days Feel Hopeless

Creativity, Parenthood and some encouragement to break away and play a little

Some days start out hopeless.

One morning last week my daughter fell apart just as the day began…

She’s struggling with full day kindergarten. She misses being home, she doesn’t like sitting still. She wants more say in her day.

Keeping her home wasn’t an option and so I had to come up with something else.

So we swapped necklaces to start. I’m wearing her beaded flower necklace I’d given her at Christmas and she has on my necklace. One I never take off. She’s wearing one of my shirts and I pulled out some old bracelets and we each took one… she said she’d never seen me wear them before and I smiled, because once upon a time I wore them everyday. Once upon a time, before children were regularly being wrapped up in my arms.

She leveled out enough to get moving and I jumped back into the morning, trying to play catch up…

My son and I got her dropped at school on time (although I’m not entirely sure how) and the rest of the morning followed a similar direction that included a dash for coffee and a butter roll before racing home for some calendula lotion to dab onto a little welt forming on a little wrist and then racing off again to try and get to school on time. Thankfully the little welt had vanished by the time we made it to school and off I went again to wind my way back home.

As for me, I had a mini migraine that lasted about a week and I’ve had a rough go finding my footing again since our routine kicked back into gear.

But in the midst of struggling to find my way, there’s been a lot more play and experimentation happening in the studio (currently situated in my bedroom) and a lot of lovely bits of things happening along the way.

I have supplies I’ve used minimally at best that I’m really starting to toy with including but not limited to these Marabu Art Crayons that are super creamy (think lipstick) and they pair really nicely with soft pastels because they can help hold those dusty bits in place just like lipstick can effortlessly capture your hair… just one reason I don’t wear it.

So I’m easing into this month, spending extra time playing and experimenting and seeing where it takes me.

If you have any supplies you’ve been holding onto get em’ out. Get your hands dirty, take time to relax, have some fun and dive in head first enjoying the process and not focusing too much on the outcome. If you’re hesitating staring at a big ol’ sheet of white paper, rest assured you’re not alone and maybe pop out to your local supply shop to get yourself a toned tan/kraft paper sketchbook. In my experience they can take a good number of layers and different types of media and the brown paper gives you a jumping off point as opposed to the traditionally unnatural bright white options.

Now is as good a time as any to give yourself a reason to press pause in the midst of the chaos and give your brain, nervous system and your eyes a break…

xoxo,

Bec