Grocery Shopping No Walk in the Park

Acrylic on canvas

Sitting at home after a morning of town hopping.
Well, we needed groceries and the summer tyres needed to go on.
I haven’t been to Amherst, our nearest town, since March.
Grocery shopping has become a very planned act, and so it should be.
We get up at 6am and leave for the senior hour at around 6:30am.
Went for gas and promptly  went blank for my PIN number, I guess I haven’t used it for a while.
Straggling to touch into memory, I tried muscle memory, anything at all to fill this emptiness where my PIN number used to be stored.
Thank goodness it came back to be and we were home by 10 am.
Feeling jet-leg I remember when travelling to Europe, now I feel it going grocery shopping in Amherst, funny.
Anyhow, I have nothing to complain about.
I feel gratitude for my life and for this day!

In a little while, I will go outside and gently dig in the dirt and place some sunflower seeds in, the mammoth kind.
With each one I will remember the beautiful soles we have lost last week.

I posted this painting to celebrate kindness, friendship and humanity.

Walk in November

The sun is shining but it is cold,

as I walk down to the shore.

The only salt I feel

on my body these days is,

when I walk past the woods

and the north west wind 

hits me 

and my eyes start to water

as I stand at the shore.

As the waves

kiss the shore over and over.

I see my shadow 

in the sand.

Yes, the sun is shining.

It is a beautiful day!

Monday Morning

Study of Bee- 5x7" monotype print on tissue paper

... as the morning progresses I am having my third cup of tea and I am excited to created today.

Last week life interjected some,
in order for me to contemplate,
to learn about myself,
to avoid the big rain drops that kill bees.

.... this morning is a new day,
nourished with life, I move on,
concentrating on my up coming show in Oxford at the Riverside Gallery in October.

Contemplating aging with grace and joy what does that mean to me.
Working on expressing it in a visual way for the show.

Journaling a Healingtool from the Past?

Is keeping a journal something from the past?

Are we able to not communicate every thought on social media?

Are we able to write it in a journal, explore the meaning of what we just have written in the quiet moments following the entry with more thoughts just meant for us, or for someone we feel safe with?

Does every thought be public knowledge?

When I write in my journal, I check in with my body, how does it feel?
How much energy do I have this morning?
What am I grateful for?
Yes, sometimes there are sad thoughts, angry thoughts, however, when writing them down in my journal and not on a social media platform I am able to reflect and change my thought pattern, while on social media I have already 10 reaction as I am wishing that I never posted it and feeling locked into a unhealthy thought pattern, which can result in shame and embarrassment and, therefore, is counterproductive of becoming a more responsible, aware, thoughtful, kind human being.

Anyhow, journaling is a worthwhile activity for my mental health. Slowing things down, bringing my thoughts into prospective, giving me a chance of intrinsic growth, changing my energy expelling  highway.  

Not only are the journals inside unique because of your unique thoughts, but they are beautiful objects and remind you of your own beauty when you look at them.

Enjoy your beauty today!

Journals

Handcrafted leather bound journals 6.5 x 4.5" #repurposed

Journals have been instrumental in creating opportunities in my life.

So I am happy to now actually create the 'hardware' myself. I have not been known to be crafty and actually fainted into my adored teachers arms, when working in sewing class.

Journals have followed me as my sketch books or to visualize my life. Sometimes with long pauses in between.

When I was younger and living in Munich struggling, while escaping reality into writing a life I wanted to live into my journal. I started to understand how important journals are. While writing, my brain started to be more free of all the things charging through the synopses.
Yesterday, I had titled by blog post, Unlimited Possibilities, well, eventually I basically talked myself into being courageous by exposing my inner critic in my journal. Which prompted big changes in my life.

Moving to Frankfurt.
Signing up for art classes.
Had my first show.
Sold some artwork, which eventually connected me to Nova Scotia, which I now call my home.

I remember sitting in the airplane in February of 1993 (only someone who does not know how cold winters are in Nova Scotia would be thinking of visiting NS in February), telling the story how I came to be flying to Nova Scotia to a person next to me, he said, "write a book about it".
In a way I did, before it happened.

Journaling is a courageous undertaking because what you put in there and dream about can come true.