Unsaid

2020-02-09_haiku

Haiku is my garden. I find stones, roses, butterflies there, moss rarely grows. With vigilance, a seeker can come away with an altered state of mind.

Alex has been driving today, I spent over six hours on the phone with him. I am a little spent.

I needed a post, this is a post. I might be back or not.

I hope all of you have a gracious evening.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

Recipe for Creating More

This is not meant to be definitive. The hope is to present some ideas. There is some background to draw upon.

  1. As much as possible, put your internal critic in the dungeon, a nice one if you like. You can liberate the rascal when you begin to edit, and absence makes the findings sharper.
  2. If you are stuck, do something else; a different style, media, genre, voice.
  3. Do Morning Pages as instructed by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way.
  4. Use a different method; notebooks and a variety of pens, computer, tablet, phone; acrylics, oils, watercolors, pencil, colored pencil, pen & ink, canvas, paper, wood, sculpture; color, monochrome, macro, zoom, panorama, varied lenses, day, night, indoor, outdoor.
  5. Take a break and read something inspiring, or if you are more audio-visual, watch some how-to’s on YouTube or find some podcasts. Use music when you can, it can ease tension and promote imagination.
  6. Work in a different location: Go to a cafe or restaurant, a picnic table in a park, a bench or table in a high traffic shopping center, a library, a ball game, a parade.
  7. Give yourself permission to be an amateur. Everything does not have to be perfect. Even if something you do does not get glowing praise, it was an experiment in which you gain knowledge. There is no such thing as perfection. What you do at the moment is perfect in that it is an expression of yourself and was done courageously by you. Work, and in time you shall gain mastery.

This is brought to you by my son, Alex, saying he was having a hard time working on his novel. I thought it might be a topic worth my exploring since I consider myself a creativity expert.

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Unique For Reasons…

2020-02-02_Art Journaling

That is what it is all about. If we love one another, we not only give the gift of love away, but it nurtures us and grows us into being love.

When we allow trivialities to come between us, we hinder ourselves. Differences are meant to keep us lively, challenge us, not for us to judge each other harshly and push us apart. If we were all alike, life would be boring.

Are you bored? Reach your love into someone’s life. Meet them where they have a need or just do a simple thing that can make a smile light up a stranger’s eyes. You will find yourself living joy, and the boredom will depart.

We may be unable to meet one another in person, but the worldwide cyber community can be an inspiration and encouragement to us if we invest love in it.

As a prompt, be generous and genuine with others in your circle of influence. Create something expressing your love for life and other lives. Be the gift and watch the gift return to you.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

Something Unexpected

The Dell went crazy and lost its ability to connect again, this device has no IP address, um, no. I fixed it, so now I am updating this. It only took hours.

So I did this awesome thing in my journal and took photos of it with the S8. I hope you will think it is unique. I am replacing the shots with scans, so most of you will never see that mess.

2020-02-02_Stargazer

2020-02-02_Stargazer page two

Lilies in Bloom

Those are stargazers from my house in the 90s. Once upon a time, I had a home. I have that file, but the network is in a reset, so maybe the Dell will jump back online. I have now replaced the photo of my print with the original scan file photo. I need my networking guru.

So, there you are. God bless, even if you do not believe in God, He believes in you. Please never feel like I am forcing the issue. We all need to think as we can until it changes. I love you any which way.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan

Realization

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A lot of females have difficulty with body image. Mine is atrocious. I just had an epiphany: I have not colored my hair in like six months, maybe more. I wanted to let it grow out, but the truth is, I am unlikely to like my self at all until I do my hair.

I feel younger; I like my clothes more. I take better care when my hair is a color I want. I colored my hair in elementary school. Lots of times, I will quit for years. This is not happy. I must have some joy to wage the fight against my poundage.

It is essential because I play like a seventeen-year-old at times. There is a reason for that, it was when I had my first psychotic break, and in-process nearly died and almost did not come back.

So there is your sign. I am hopeful the color is still usable, and I am going to bring me back. This happens to be the time fate has decreed that I learn to do this without drips, my smocks, I guess they went into another dimension.

The photo is unretouched.

As a prompt, if you know there is something you can do to elevate your mood and self-esteem, get about doing it. I know it takes courage. I believe in you.

© Jo Ann J. A. Jordan