Off the Hook!

Dear Friends (somehow this opening always reminds me of "Dear Diary"...), something interesting has happened in my life lately. I let myself off the proverbial hook.

Come Play with Me
Acrylics on 12 x 24 inch canvas

I am one of those people who is very hard on themselves. As lenient as I am with everyone else, I never cut myself any slack about what I'm doing, not doing, thinking, not thinking, changing, not changing etc.

At the end of last year I had enough! I decided that I was going to be as kind to myself as I try to be to other people. I noticed that I'd never treat anyone else the way I treat myself. I'd never talk to anyone else the way I talk to myself.

I added coarse molding paste and glass bead gel to this painting.
You can see both quite well in this detail photo - the glass bead gel toward the top and the molding paste on the left. 

So I gave myself a heartfelt apology and decided that I was good enough and kind enough and considerate enough and pretty enough and and and. You get the idea.

I cannot tell you how relaxed I feel this year about everything. Apparently being critical with myself was hard work and took up a lot of my creative energy. Now I watch others do the usual beginning-of-the-year fasts and cleanses and 30-day, 100-day challenges, vowing to turn their life, eating, bodies, habits and whatever else around this year. I don't feel the need to do any of that (and I have in the past).

I have goals for this year with my art and my list of 100 things I want to do, but even about that I am feeling relaxed. I am trying out a daily schedule to figure out when it's best for me to paint and to do everything else. Some days it works, some days it doesn't. And that's ok!

Most of all I have goals as to how I want to FEEL this year. And I want to CELEBRATE what's working in my life, which is pretty much everything! I am creative, I am happy, I am healthy, I feel good, I am painting every day, I get to spend my days with Daniel and our pets, I get to cook and eat excellent food, I live near the ocean, I get to travel, I get to connect with all of you and so much more. SO much more!

And in that spirit I celebrate all of you! May you have a beautiful, relaxed and sunny day today with some fun surprises sprinkled here and there. With love and gratitude,

❧ Silke