Today is the first day I thought my thirty in thirty challenge would become a twenty-nine in thirty. Day 21, and I just couldn’t seem to get it done. Ezra, who naps for at least two hours every day, decided he did not want to nap today. Little things make me abandon the abundant and overwhelming hope I experience days, even moments before a minor roadblock. Bird painting calms me. I had help today. My mom read to Ezra, calmed him, finally settled him down into his nap while I drank coffee, dried my tears, set out to paint the birds who neither reap nor sow nor store away into barns and yet are fed. Am I not more valuable than they?
Okay. Time to let go a little. To ease myself into the abundant help available to me when I just need a break. Stress is for the birds.
This one in progress:
April 21, 2014
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2 Responses
Sparrows are one of my absolute favorite birds, and you are one of my absolute favorite human beings. Congratulations on finishing the 30 days! It’s been so exciting to see what you’ll post each day, and it’s inspired me to start my own creative journey this summer. Back to creative writing? Drawing? Maybe both? We’ll have to wait and see. All I know is that following this blog has truly kept me motivated on some days where I didn’t feel like fighting anymore. Knowing someone out there that I knew and (okay let’s get down to brass tacks)loved was working through hardship by expressing themselves creatively? It just resonated really deeply with me. Thank you for that, Ms. Hopkins. I don’t even sit in your classroom anymore, but you continue to inspire me and keep me going!
Well, Jen, you are most certainly one of my favorite human beings, and I’m so glad you are going to pursue your creativity.
When I first started this little adventure, I thought about the artists and writers that inspire me and used as my mantra, “what if so-and-so decided to be an accountant (fill in any other job here, all noble, of course) instead of a painter. I can’t imagine so-and-so not painting.”
That’s how I feel about you. The fact that you had such a command of language at such a young age makes me, frankly, jealous.
Whatever you do, please keep me posted. I’d like to be among the first of your fans.