STARTING A NEW WATERCOLOR SKETCHBOOK JOURNAL & MOVING FORWARD

⎨Starting a new watercolor sketchbook journal & moving forward⎬

I'm writing this post on May 10th, after one month has passed since the day I took these pictures- and it's nothing short of amazing to see the astonishing ripple effects that a teeny tiny choice has created in my life in just one month!

Long story short, I had "injured" myself in a mysterious way while walking one day (there was not actually any apparent injury), and I could not walk freely. I had a feeling that I was "resisting the flow of life", exactly as I've written in my sketchbook that day.

I have had previous episodes like this, and they have manifested in periods of my life when I was deeply unsure about how to proceed in my life, felt stuck or blocked in some way. The moment I resolved the emotional issues, the physical conditions "magically" went away.

Since I was aware of what was happening behind the surface, I've been very intentional about letting myself go with the flow, without forcing anything.

So one morning, after two weeks of not being able to walk freely even just from the bed to the kitchen, when I finally felt I had had enough, I managed to walk myself to a local garden, where I could sit on a bench in Nature, undisturbed. My intent was to just listen to the guidance of my heart.

Before going out, a handmade sketchbook that I had made years prior "flashed" into my mind- so I grabbed it and my plein air sketching kit, and off I went for a mini Morning Walk.

I sat down and absorbed the Beauty of that humble place. Maybe not very interesting to most people, I found out it had secrets to whisper in my ears. 

And so I sketched freely, not really concerned about the finished results of my endeavors. I just let my fountain pen (the first time I used it for sketching, by the way!) move freely and draw what it wanted to draw.

I savored my coffee, and my freshly baked croissant I had managed to grab from the bakery on my way to the gardens.

When I looked at the spread, it felt different from my previous sketchbooks. It was certainly not perfect, but I could feel a powerful energy arising from it. So I stayed there on the bench to contemplate it for a while before walking back home.

In the afternoon, I felt so inspired by that morning and my sketch of the day, that I wanted to make another spread. And so a new practice began...

On a side note- but important note- I had never wanted to "ruin" that handmade sketchbook for years, and I had always kept it for something special. On that day it certainly was nothing special- but maybe it was...

I felt deeply that I could move freely. That I could free myself from whatever web in which I felt entangled. That moving ahead and chosing the direction I wanted to go was solely in my power. That I could actually choose my own path to follow in life, no matter what other people choose for themselves, think of as the only path, or believe possible.

And that's why this sketch will always have a special place in my heart!

Monica xoxo