Okay, I am living and breathing eating this newborn (yes, sometimes literally, because those tiny to
Okay, I am living and breathing eating this newborn (yes, sometimes literally, because those tiny toes - CANNOT EVEN), and even though these days I rarely have a single thought that doesn’t involve or center around my daughter, I am going to ATTEMPT to talk about something other than my child. Starting … NOW! . I really feel like my art began to take flight right around the time I got pregnant with Hazel. (Oops.) I think the reason for this is because it occurred to me that I was no longer going to be able to paint at my leisure. Art would be something I would need to make room for, like a beautiful lamp I had no place to put. I knew that some days I would have just have to hold that lamp it my hands if I wanted to create. So I began applying the same principles to my work that I try do to my life. I began giving myself permission. More than that, I took my Type A, overanalyzing, perfectionistic, people pleasing self OFF THE HOOK. Like completely off. Sounds simple enough, and it is – it IS simple, but it’s not easy. Because that hook, although it’s the weapon with which we mutilate ourselves, is what we know. We are comfortable with the hook. We know what to expect from the hook. Worse, we believe we need the hook, that’s it the only thing that will take us. But here’s the thing. Grace takes us too. Even more, grace longs to touch us, to cultivate our artistry. It opens us up, makes us available to ourselves in a way that self-deprecation cannot. My hook was comparison. I was constantly measuring myself, consequently always coming up short. Only after I gave myself permission to approach the page fully myself, fully willing to mistake hard, fully unhooked, only then could I start to make the art I was born to make. Turns out, THAT was the real art. Letting myself be as I am, not who I think I should be. I have to work at that every day. Every single day. To lean into that soft place where my most gentle self lives. To embrace her, open wounds and all. You don’t need a hook. You just need you. Open, awake, grace-saturated you. . . ✨Original available for purchase -- source link