JOY & PLEASURE AS MY COMPASS... AND SKETCHING!

⎨JOY & pleasure as my compass... and sketching!⎬

I've been doing this work as of late... really really intentionally. To pleasure myself in all ways, to really lean into pleasure.

It was such a glorious Spring day, and all I wanted to do was going out (after two weeks of forced immobility at home)! I still couldn't walk freely, so I decided to take the shorter route and go to the rose garden...

It was such an incredible, abundant day!!

I was so crazy excited about being able to walk freely again... not that I could really go far away, but for me, even a small walk was such a blessing! I kept feeling waves of gratitude wash over my body!

I was so excited that I had to sketch and record some of the beautiful things I was seeing and feeling that day. I had left my sketchbook at home purposefully, because I wanted to relax and not have yet another thing to do, but I had a notebook and my unicorn pen in my bag, so I used what I had!

I could then use those rough sketches later at home to do a proper spread.

I felt on cloud nine!

And when you think that things can't go any better... magic happens! :)

I wanted to see if the café was open for a cappuccino, and in the end, I found myself savoring a delicious croissant and barley cappuccino in front of this magnificence!! A stunning historic palace, with glorious gardens. Oh my.

I sat down on a little Parisian style table under a giant cream-colored umbrella, in the sole company of my heartbeats.

And on top of that... maybe because it was late in the morning, I had all the place for myself only!!!!! There was nobody there except me! Everybody seemed to just want to walk in the park and not stop for a coffee break.

It was really a magical morning, and I enjoyed myself immensely, really savoring each and every detail!

In the afternoon, I painted these spreads in my sketchbook, to remind myself of that special day, and to always use pleasure and JOY as my compass from now on, with even more intention than usual.

Monica xoxo