YOU'LL GET THROUGH THIS
I will too.
Okay, so last week’s drawing was MIA because I came back from Japan, did a (thankfully virtual) keynote for mental health and then felt sick. I thought it might be exhaustion or jet-lag but turns out it’s covid and that’s why I’ve spent the last week in bed, in complete isolation from everyone else. Bleh.
Thankfully I’m fully vaxxed and this is a mild strain so I’m feeling almost human today and can now post the drawing I would have posted last week, which was about anxiety when I drew it but now feels weirdly prescient considering covid is what stopped me from having the lung power or energy to post it.
I’m staying in isolation until I test negative (I know there are varying guidelines but I’m lucky enough to be able to do most effective one so it feels like the right thing to do) and I’m already a little cabin-fevery, which resulted in my climbing out of my window with a bear head. It made sense at the time. Sort of.
But then I came back in and couldn’t sleep because my nights are days and vice-versa and so I decided to make a new drawing in the tiny travel notebook that I picked up in Japan and then never used at all when I was there because it seemed too nice to write in.
Write in your pretty notebooks, y’all. Fucking destroy them with life and art. Take them to see the world because you never know when you may be spending weeks trapped in your room with only a giant bear head to snuggle with.
Sending you sterile hugs, sweet friend. Thank you for staying.
"Don't be afraid of ruining pretty notebooks."
I have way too many notebooks that sit on my shelf, completely blank, because I'm afraid of ruining them. And when I DO give myself permission to start a new one, I end up hating my handwriting, sketching, or method of journaling which results in torn out pages. THEN I feel like a failure which feeds the fear. The cycle is bullshit.
My husband died in early March. When I finally worked up the nerve to go through his desk, I found a stack of pristine notebooks in one of the lower drawers. I lost it.
Yes, write in the pretty notebooks. Or doodle. Compose music. Make paper airplanes out of the pages. Practice your hook shot with crumpled-up paper balls. Origami cranes. Whatever works for you.