I’ve been ruminating about many things these days. Unable to find relief through or from my ruminations, I turned to art and creativity. Creativity brings me into the moment, helps me notice possibility, brings me joy, and somehow, centers me.

First I grabbed my water color crayons. As I played, my All-Stabilo black pencil, acrylic paint, and words, joined the party.

I tried out possible words for the new year. I chose nouns instead of verbs. For some reason they felt right, and brought me a greater sense of peace. I wonder if it’s because the nouns suggest that whatever the word is, is actually in existence now, rather waiting for me to bring it to pass.

Continuing my art and my thinking, I brushed gesso on a page in a long forgotten art journal, and allowed myself to be inspired by a piece of art that used architectural stamps, and blocking, to allow for overlap and connection.

Yup, I know, there’s not an architectural stamp to be seen. I don’t have any, didn’t want to buy any, but still wanted to play with the idea of overlap/blocking, and connecting to things that I enjoy. Hence, the overlapping circles filled with various doodles. Oh, and the words — lots of words.

As I waited for the paint to dry, I picked up my inspirational art journal. I note the days with a bit of art, inspiration, scripture, affirmations, and positivity. I’ve been doing it each day for nearly a year and a half. I opened to January 1, 2021 and read each post till I reached January 1, 2022. I’m so glad I did. I was buoyed by the art, the positivity, the encouraging thoughts and scripture, and, I think, the sheer magnitude of it all.

It was nice to remind myself that the magnitude didn’t happen all at once. It exists because each day I did one little thing. Sometimes I only did the drawing and writing — leaving the coloring for another day. No matter, little by little I amassed a substantial work of great value.

The other day I read a St. Augustine quote

Aspire to great things, begin with little ones.

Perhaps St. Augustine’s quote should guide me for 2022.

Aspire to great things, begin with little ones.
One breath.
One moment of presence.
One changed thought.
One moment filled with hope and positivity.
One smile.
One laugh.
One moment filled with trust.
One whispered prayer.
One published blog post.

May we all have a happy and blessed 2022.