One Little Word: May
21 May 2013
Even though I haven’t finished my April page, I fell in love with the May prompt in Ali Edwards’ One Little Word class and wanted to do it right away. The idea is to put down some positive messages that you have been hearing or thinking or feeling. Or even just ones that you want to emulate. I was really overjoyed when all of these came to me, in a snap. They’re aspirations as well as inspirations–these are the things I most want for my life, for my self. There are a few quotes here and there (Rumi mostly, who takes me back to my halcyon high school days, and still rings just as true today), but mostly these are things that are swimming around in my head, the answers that come when I ask myself, “What is really important?”
I loved painting the background for it. I did it with acrylics, but I love how the white blends with the colors to create the suggestion of oils. There is just something so wonderful about having a paintbrush in your hand. The edges of the page curled up, as expected, but that’s no problem, since I’m going to put it in plastic in my Project Life album.
I know it’s hard to see the messages in the picture above, so I’ll post them in close-up here. I kind of think I’m going to do something unprecedented and present them without comment. I like breaking up images with words, but these words, they speak for themselves.
The funny thing is that I am usually fairly unmoved by quotes. But all of these just came spilling out of me, and writing them down felt like the happiest, quietest rush of some secret river. It surprised me. And delighted me. I hope that in future explorations I will be able to find it again.

May 21, 2013 @ 05:55:57
What a lovely, lovely post! The thoughts, the feelings, the colors, the process, all of it!
It is such magic when these things just come, as though they’d been waiting there all the time. And I suppose they must have been!
May 22, 2013 @ 11:42:19
Thank you so much! It definitely doesn’t happen with every prompt, but this one I was super excited about!
May 21, 2013 @ 11:22:06
What a serendipitous headline on the newspaper that you used to protect your table while painting.
May 22, 2013 @ 11:42:55
Indeed! Good noticing! π
May 21, 2013 @ 15:11:04
Ah, Cameron, this drew me in like an expanse of ocean. I wanted to just flow into this page and live there. I have a Rumi journal and I’m going to print this picture and use it like a bookmark. π π π (Your creativity is seeping through the miles. . . .)
p.s. Dad, really good noticing!
May 22, 2013 @ 11:47:12
Oh, this makes me so happy! I was definitely thinking of you when I was working on this page. So glad you are enjoying it!