I've started a craft that I love doing, but LOVING something does not equal being GOOD at something.  I'm just not sure how to figure out where I fall on the spectrum.  I'm asked people like my parents, friends, husband, other family members; I feel like all of them may feel required to say that I'm a lot better at something than I actually am.  But, maybe they're telling the truth -- may I am good at what I love to do.

Who knows.  The more I do it, the better I am anyway, so at least I'll get in some good practice, haha.

These aren't the best photos of some of the cards I've made, but use your imagination.  Creating these bring me so much joy, and isn't that what your life should be about: finding what brings you joy and doing it?!  Obviously there are other things I like to do more like travel and work events, but my health doesn't always cooperate.  (Hopefully I WILL get to travel in a few weeks, so yay for that.  Astana is gorgeous, and the people and arts are beautiful there.  I can't wait to hear those magical words "Yes, you're healthy enough to leave the country!")  Please, please, please.  Making these are something that's calming and pretty unaffected by my health.

 

I'm a great collector of quotes, which means I don't give many worth much myself.  Anyway, I always feel like signing off with a quote, so I'm going to seize the day.

"The strange power of art is sometimes it can show that what people have in common is more urgent than what differentiates them." 
-John Berger  

I love what this power of art says about not art, but people.  We WANT, we NEED to be brought together and what we choose to help us do just that is art a lot of times.  A beautiful thing.

xoxo,
A

Pulling Weeds

 "You have made a place in my heart where I thought there was no room for anything else. You have made flowers grow where I cultivated dust and stone."

 - Robert Jordan, The Wheel of Time

If this blog is a garden, it is definitely be full of weeds by now.  I haven't been kind to it, and to be completely honest...I've forgotten about it on numerous occasions and for long periods of time.  I know there aren't hundreds of people reading this; I mean seriously - five people checking out this site would be a good day.  But, being read by others is not really my intended outcome or achievement here, and I know that sounds ironic seeing as this is a public space and not an ongoing private word doc.

I do 'journal' on actual paper at home, and I fill it with mostly found objects, photos, quotes, etc. that inspire me in some way.  In fact, it looks a lot like this site in that it's mostly a record of what I'm feeling, loving, missing, wanting, and needing, shown through the images that I choose to post plus a written thought or paragraph from me.  Having a public space vs. my tangible notebook, however, keeps me accountable to the invisible few readers who happen to stumble across this site.

So, I'm going to try to spend more time in this garden, nurturing the inspirational blooms, the beautiful, the items and ideas which provoke thought and essentially, growth.  To that same end, I need to constantly be pulling the weeds, the empty spaces, the negative energy that can slowly take over if not tended to swiftly, and let it go.

Nurturing the growth and pulling the weeds -- maybe that's the purpose of this blog.  Constant care.  Consistent inspiration and ambition.  I can wander with purpose.  I can adventure while carrying 'home' with me, refuting the idea that 'peace' means I have to stay still.    

  


 Goodnight from this blogger/soon-to-be constant gardener.

xoxo

A