A Page From My Standard Diary for Thursday June 10, 2014

Amongst the many gifts that my Grandmother would give out each Christmas, there was always included for all the kids and grandchildren a red Standard Diary with a page for each day of the year and a calendar for Butchart Gardens.  My lovely cousin adored these standard diaries while the majority of everyone else either put them on a bookshelf to never open again or gave away.  Who knows what happened to them! After my Grandmother had her stroke and stopped sending the Standard Diaries my lovely cousin began sending out an email to all of us cousins and uncles and aunts asking if anyone would like a Standard Diary.  Myself along with I think 2 other cousins said yes.  My intention for writing in them has often been better than my practice.  However, recently I am back on the train writing each day in my Standard Diary.  I figured I would share a page.  The writers voice is often different when documenting in a diary and also, I feel really grateful for what I was able to write today and want to share the love.  So here is what I wrote word for word for Thursday July 10, 2014.

Well I have been enjoying doing my daily practice.  The drops from the tinctures seem so sweet and full of life on my tongue.  I have boundless gratitude for my loved ones.  The ones that love me and the ones that I love.  Their words of encouragement, love pride in me.  I am very grateful for it feels wonderful being appreciated, receiving compliments when I haven't been expecting them, knowing that those around me believe that I'm "doing good." I can feel my heart swelling.  I have great love for all these people, even and especially for the ones that no longer play an active roll in my life.  I am grateful to loss for showing me how much I really have.  I am grateful for heartbreak for showing me how much I really do love.  I am grateful for every day that I wake up and choose to love myself more.  Thank you for the love.

What I Did When I Was Not Making Art

One day I found myself on the phone with my lovely cousin.  I was about to tell her about how since my life was so crazy with the loss of my art studio and having to move homes as well that I hadn't made any art.  I caught myself right before I said that because I knew that it wasn't true.  I may not have manifested a profound body of work, yet I had been making art.  I have a little black Moleskin that I carry with my in my purse.  When I had the spare time, drinking a ginger beer at a bar or waiting for something I would pull out my little book and do a drawing.  After I told my cousin how I was about to say a false statement, we continued on talking about how sometimes we don't give ourselves credit for what we are doing.  We often think that we are not doing something because it doesn't live up to our grand perceptions that we had created, while truthfully though, we had been working on something.  So here are some drawings that I did during a pretty busy time in my life.

I bet there are somethings that you don't give yourself credit for.  I bet if you sit down and think about it more that you will actually have some of the dreams that you've wanted, maybe not the form you wanted, but still, some of the same aspirations.