I’m just going to say it: this has been a great morning.
My between six-and-eight-am hours get pretty chaotic, so my preplanning today carried me through my last minute Mommying.
Before the last rush out the door, though, I had pulled my soul collage card for the day. I call this “My Zen Card” and basically it tells me that even on your way to that serious, dressed up, put on a good face place you are going in such a hurry, there is always time for rest.
Rest lives in each raising of the foot and every returning to the ground of the same foot.
I had thought “I want to go to Dagny’s this morning!” almost simultaneously with that, but most of the time when I have inklings like that I wrap myself up in the fur stole belief of “Oh, I have way too many important things to do than take an hour and hang out in a coffee shop when I could be doing exactly the same stuff at home.
I was out of my house by 8:15 and my friend, Kimberly, texted me and said, “Meet me at Dagny’s later?”
I was meant to go. I brought my creativity supplies because I knew, today, I was going to create a zentangle on a dictionary page for Art Every Day Month.
My crayons spilled in the bottom of my bag so I simply
scooped them up and dumped
them on the table and started working with lines,
lines, lines.
I really want to improve my drawing from about third grade skill to much better, so I am focusing on “line” and that’s it. I managed to copy the coffee cup on the back of the chairs at Dagny’s and their image became a part of my Zentangle. I circled words on my dictionary page like I do when I have writing prompts and I alternated between writing, coloring and grading some papers: something I do for my part time job at the local college.
I had been sitting there contentedly for two hours when Kimberly arrived right on schedule.
I found myself wanting to put more lines on my zentangle but
I wrote these words:
I thought, “Oh, a line with black crayon around it all would be so pretty and it would feel so very finished!” I used self control. “My zentangle wasn’t about completion, after all,” my wise sage self reminded me. “It is about process.”
I got up to use the restroom and when I returned, Kimberly was using one of my crayons on her work, so I giggled and spoke my happiness at her using my crayon. I dove right back into my crayon box and what do you suppose I did without even thinking?
I made a black line around my zentangle.
I felt so pleased with myself when looking at my finished…. Oh, my. I laughed at my silliness. Fewer than ten minutes ago my wise sage self had spoken.
“My zentangle wasn’t about completion, after all. It is about process.”
In less than ten minutes I forgot my own wisdom!
I laughed some more and I am even laughing now. How often does that happen: we declare some thought or idea as brilliant and alas, hours days weeks months years decades go by and we don’t follow through with that brilliance or we act in complete opposition to it.
I know my normal response has been to beat myself up for being so insert your favorite self effacing phrase here.
It feels so much better to laugh and learn something from it instead. I look at my “complete” zentangle now and I enjoy it, especially because my wise sage apparently wanted to show my impetuous youth she is still in charge. There is one segment that does not have the finishing line upon it!
Now that, my loves, is brilliant.
The process of creating art teaches in such a subtle, loving manner, doesn’t she?
Where have you surprised yourself with your creative process recently?
This post was written especially for Art Every Day Month. After November, many of us continue to create daily via CreativeEveryDay.com the website from Leah Piken Kolidas. Her website is a fine way to connect, to create and to share your creations.
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© 2012 by Julie Jordan Scott
