Challenge Check-In: A Little Here, A Little There

This was a pretty good week for me.  I journaled every day since last Sunday with some days more prolific than others.  On two days, all I managed was the inchie-sized doodle for January's calendar and a couple of entries in my "morning journal" stretch across two days' time.  All other days, I completed both the doodle and the diary entry.  In contrast, I spent hours playing on Thursday, resulting in the page you see here.  The bonus?  I took pictures every step of the way and I'm working on a mega-post featuring the entire step-by-step for this page background.

An inch worth of art isn't much, I know, but it counts.  In that inch, I captured a tiny moment, a fleeting tidbit of time that I'll now be able to recall forever.  In the ten minutes or so I spent sketching and painting, my mind was calm, my pulse slowed, my soul was happy.  A little here, a little there: it all adds up.  And when I had more time, I settled in and really let loose.  Do I wish I had done more?  Sure. But I don't want to waste time grieving what might have been.  I need to trust that I did exactly what I was meant to and remember that, regardless of the wild variation in productivity, I did nurture the artist inside every day and consistency of committment is important.

I think it is also valuable to remember that creativity is not limited to art journaling.  I did a lot of cooking this week as well.  I'm not a fantastic cook but I can make a few yummy and nutritious meals.  I find that the act of cooking is very soothing - measuring, chopping, stirring, seasoning.  I also taught 50 middle school students how to work together to create doodled and watercolored papers for their art journals.  I did laundry and found great satisfaction in folding the soft, warm clothes and tucking them back into their proper place.  I played with my kitties, throwing Squeaky Mouse repeatedly and making Squirrel wriggle convincingly across the living room.  I provided the cats a lap whenever they asked and was rewarded with rumbling purrs.  I played Go Fish with my son using some ridiculously-sized cards and we laughed when they all fell out of our hands.  I watched Dinner with Schmucks and laughed some more.  Every day this week, I did something that nourished my self, my family, my health and thus, my art.  I can't wait for the new week to begin...