IN A CREATIVE WAY

Each year I do a collage journal.  I've read, "Do more of what you liked as a child."  Well, I liked cutting and pasting.  And glitter and warm words and inspirational quotes and writing and coloring and lace and creating.  It all comes together in my collage journal.  So easy.  So calming.  Definitely a flow-state.  We all have these, flow states, where we are satisfyingly present and engaged.  Here are some of the special words I've included in the past months, from all kinds of sources including my own heart.  I hope they resonate.  

Learning to do and think less is an important skill.

What dark did you conquer in your story?

"I had the sense that the deeper meaning of the story was in the gaps." Edith Wharton

Enjoy being alone.

Getting lost in a good book is one of life's great pleasures. 

Love stretches your heart and makes you big inside. 

"It's no use going back to yesterday because I was a different person then."  Alice, Lewis Carroll 

Go outside.  It always helps.

The sun and moon rise and set every day.  Don't miss so many of them.

When nobody's home but you, that's your time. 

"I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day." Vincent Van Gogh

You'll find many beautiful wintry sights at dawn, dusk and dark.

Always protect yourself from despair or indifference.  Help others do the same. 

"Hope is a thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all."   Emily Dickinson

A wounded heart can still sing.  Mine does.

Spend time close to home with the simple pleasures that make up your life.

One thing we can hope for is that the Lord will enter our minds and hearts and help us bear the sinful world in which we live. 

"Do anything but let it produce joy." Walt Whitman

Just keep on going; look ahead to see the blessing around the bend. 

"No need to hurry.  No need to sparkle.  No need to be anybody but oneself."   Virginia Woolf

There are decisions I may not have made if I hadn't taken sadness as a warning.  

The act of documenting my life in a creative way has improved my life.