I started this post the day of my 40th birthday…over two weeks ago. I wasn’t short of words. I didn’t need any ideas. I knew what I was going to say. The post was simply waiting for a finishing touch, a picture, some word art, some splash of heck awesome.
So it sat… unpublished.
A Google+ post came into my stream. It was a post about Lynda Berry’s illustrated syllabus and homework assignments. The article shared how she uses humor, creativity and drawings to write her syllabus and homework assignments. It is just too cool and seriously, who wouldn’t want to do that homework.
Mt daughter’s drawings stared at me from the magnets they hung from on the fridge as I ate my breakfast. Their collages of words, imagination, fearless free thought, full of color, ideas, flowing, oozing with the details of their life, shouted their creativity.
I had been missing something lately. Something that kept me from doing more, from writing more, from creating more and it finally hit me…I’ve been missing drawing.
Suddenly it hit me. I knew what was missing. I knew what I wanted to do. So, I asked Olivia’s if I could use her sketch pad. I got out my favorite black pen and I began to draw (big step for me as I usually draw on the iPad, drawing on the iPad means I can fix my mistakes, I can make it perfect and hate what my drawings look like on paper). The drawings and words began to swirl and became entangled on the paper. My heart warmed and happiness flooded me as I felt my personality, my words and my story illustrated on the paper.
My daughters joined me on the floor, each with their papers and pens. We sat and drew together. We smiled and giggled and passed crayons to each other and admired each other’s drawings.
I knew in that moment…this type of writing, this type of drawing, this type of creativity filled my like none before. (Mommy BONUS…it also gave me a half way point with my daughters and our time together. It allowed us all to write and draw and create the way we love to do. It allowed us to spend time together, doing something we all loved.) I had finally found a creative outlet that was fun, artsy, free flowing, portable and most of all it made me feel like I have wanted to for so long… like an artist.
I give you the first of many, many _______(I am certain there is some fancy smancy name for this type of writing/journaling. I have no idea what it is called. I just call it my art…my happy)….
