A Creative Mantra for the New Year
We tell ourselves all kinds of lies every day.
“I’m too _______ to _______.”
“I’ll never be good at ________.”
“It’s not worth my time to pursue _________.”
What if in the new year, we explore those things that we’ve always wanted to try but never gave ourselves permission to pursue?
This week, as I’ve started nurturing my long-held desire to learn how to draw, I’ve been reminded how deeply my heart desires to pursue creativity. To learn new things and then weave them into life here in our little cottage.
Our property affords so many opportunities to capture its beauty in mediums outside of photography. From the sun peeking through the mossy oaks to visits from sandhill cranes, I’ve always wanted to learn to capture these moments and preserve them artistically in time. As I became aware last week of a state plan to potentially create a turnpike interchange a mile down the street from our little cottage, potentially disrupting the fragile lake ecosystem and altering our quiet life here, that desire evolved into an almost manic quest.
It suddenly became incredibly important to preserve our simple days here. Right now.
This year, I’m on a mission to try all kinds of creative pursuits as a means to find those artistic expressions that make my heart sing. Because I believe all of us were made to create. To give the world more beauty so that the sometimes overwhelming darkness doesn’t have the final say.
My first creative pursuit is drawing. I’ve purchased drawing pencils, waterproof pens, and watercolors to document 2022 in a sketch journal. My sincere hope is to capture moments from these quiet, mundane cottage days and hopefully nurture the skill enough that I can go on to capture even greater moments of beauty. The lake views. The front of our cottage. My boys as they grow another year older.
I have absolutely no background in drawing, so I bought Samantha Dion Baker’s Draw your Day: An Inspiring Guide to Keeping a Sketch Journal and Draw Your World: How to Sketch and Paint Your Remarkable Life to help inspire the pursuit and give me the rudimentary skills to get started. I also purchased a course from Jeanne Oliver’s creative network, Draw and See. I can’t wait to see how my drawing will evolve throughout the course of the year.
I have so many other things I want to pursue. I’m determined to make 2022 the year I launch myself head-first into all of the things I’m curious about learning how to do.
Here’s my 2022 mantra.
In 2022, may we give ourselves:
- Permission to answer creativity’s call.
- Freedom to travel new roads.
- Grace in the face of challenges
- Courage to create a more beautiful world.
Cheers from the cottage,
Colleen
