The pastor to my church gave a sermon awhile back that I honestly can't remember the topic of but I have carried a phrase he used during the service with me ever since.  "Do what you know how to do until you can do different." My whole life is different now and in the struggle to find my new normal I am slowly getting back to doing what I know how to do. Sometimes it's just finding the energy to make the bed and other days it's the sheer determination to "art my hurt away". Its during these art therapy times I think of nothing. I am totally immersed in the process---the colors, the texture of the paper, the way the pencil sounds as it scratches across page in the sketchbook or glides across gesso, the smell of the wax from colored pencils or the distinctive smell of markers, the squishy feel of the paint when you smear it with your fingers---it's almost like I get a "time out" from life where I can exhale quietly with no expectations from anyone or anything.  It's when I can remember that my precious husband was my biggest fan. It's where I can hope he's smiling down on me from heaven still cheering me on. It's where I find a small piece of me I recognize from before my life got turned upside down. It's in these tiny islands of peacefulness that has helped me cope with the loneliness. The absence of my best friend has been devastating. It's in the faces of my journal girls and the doodles on a notepad that I lay my heart bare with words and symbolism that reaches to my core. Sometimes, well a lot of times, words don't convey the feelings I have in my soul. I thought I would share a few of my journal girls. No fancy art supplies used but I do use Prismacolor colored pencils because they are super waxey and blend beautifully for skin. The rest of the supplies used are a mechanical pencil, micron pen, Sharpie water based paint pen for the white highlights and in the Bloom girl the vivid color is from Dye-Na-Flow liquid fabric color. She is also the only one on watercolor paper.
So my friends whatever your troubles are maybe you can art yourself a moment of peace, exhale gently, and turn whatever is hurting your heart into something beautiful. ❤️