I'm really excited to share my latest piece with you. This original watercolour meerkat, entitled Lookout, is now available in my online shop, as well as only 20 archival quality prints!
Apart from being pleased with how Lookout turned out, I'm just really chaffed that I actually finished it! I'm not going to lie, the past month has been extremely challenging... With the world coming to a firm halt, we all suddenly have so much time on our hands. Somehow, this led to the expectation that magic HAS TO HAPPEN RIGHT NOW. If we don't manage to accomplish something spectacular, life-affirming, mind-altering, we somehow fail.
That is such............ I almost said bullshit, but I'm too polite for that (ah-hem).
The unthinkable has become reality. A reality that was expected, planned out, dreamed of. Suddenly, that reality was ripped out from under our feet. The entire world has been affected, and this new, unthinkable reality will remain for quite some time. People have already lost their livelihoods. An astonishing amount of people have already lost their lives.
If that doesn't constitute a moment of pause, I don't know what will.
A moment to be shocked. Sad. Unsettled. Scared. Lost.
A moment to grieve. Grieve for what will no longer be.
We are aloud to feel our feelings. We are aloud to take time to deal with them, without there being some kind of a limit on how big they must be and how long it should take us to work through them. And doing all of this doesn't make us weak, lazy, stupid, small, neurotic, negative, worthless. It just means we're human.
There is no need to put pressure on yourself (or others!) to act NOW. You don't have to bake-a-three-layer-sponge-cake-with-a-rainbow-sunshine-filling. You don't have to learn to play the guitar. You don't have to spring clean every cupboard in your house or teach your dog how to mow the lawn. Right now, if all you can manage is Survival Mode, then that's exactly what you should be doing. Guarding your mental health should be your first priority. And whatever you need to do to make that happen, is okay. That includes baking-a-three-layer-sponge-cake-with-a-rainbow-sunshine-filling.
In my case, it was painting a meerkat, interspersed with the following: Binge-watching series, drinking tea, walking round-and-round in circles on the lawn like a hamster on a wheel, crying, rationed alcohol consumption, re-reading every book I own, online yoga, not wanting to get out of bed in the morning, short bursts of maniacal cleaning, stuffing my face with popcorn, endless social media scrolling, lazy gardening, a brief phase of online Zumba (with an array of hosts that don't speak English), brain-storming new ideas, crying (did I already say that?), and of course writing a couple of blog posts...
And it's all okay.
If today all you can manage is just breathing, it's okay. You'll move mountains another day...
