I haven’t been very creative in the last few months. I’m sure there are lots of reasons, including the decision to not continue with the Studio Second Street store, the lack of motivation for writing, depression, dealing with the realities of retirement, and health issues, just to name a few. And my part time job, can’t forget that, even though it doesn’t require many hours of a week, the work itself is strenuous enough for me that I can be completely wiped out for up to two days after a shift.

These are excuses, I know it, but for anyone else who happens to read this post in the future, I want you to feel validated for not being creative when any one or more of these things happens to you. Especially if you are older or in less-than-perfect health. We don’t give our bodies the attention they really need, and instead think of them as something that can operate on automatic pilot while our brains work on “more important” things.

But I feel like I’m coming back around, like I really want to be creative again, only without the pressure. A couple of months ago I became interested in The Nature Journaling Circle (Alex Boon) and subscribed just so that I could join the monthly Zoom sessions. I felt like it would make me do some artwork at least once a month in order to justify the subscription cost. I gave myself permission to be quiet on the Zoom session, not force myself to do anything I didn’t want to do, and tell myself it was okay to do the actual artwork over days instead of trying to fit it all into the two hour time slot.

So far, it’s worked. And I’ve rediscovered that I actually like taking online classes, only I want the ability to veer from the script. Do my own thing with them. Without feeling like they need to be productive or profitable.

Anyway…I feel like I’m still learning–honestly, I hope I never stop learning–and I wanted a place to record some of the ideas and processes. I decided against posting at Realmscapes because I need to make this easy. So here we are: a new blog on an old website that was, frankly, just gathering dust anyway.

Mostly, I hope this becomes a place where beginning again counts as progress.