“As artists we work every day. We make our own lives every day; we care for our family every day. It is hard daily work, this creative process. But it is also greater than personal. We are asked to care for others as well—helping them to create their lives as we were helped.” -Corita Kent
Braveheart, today is my birth day—and I am celebrating! 🎉🎉🎉
Yes, my 💔 heart is heavy for the realities of oppression and violence—but I know there is also goodness, and I know there are always helpers.
“Look for the helpers. There are always people who are helping.” -Fred Rogers
“What the inner voice says will not disappoint the hoping soul.” -Johann Friedrich Von Schiller
Braveheart, please get to know your story. Listen intently to your inner voice. Trust your pace. Be a helper. Love your neighbors. ❤️❤️❤️
I know Life can be overwhelming.
But I also know Life can get better.
🎉 Today I am celebrating being alive. As an ovarian cancer survivor, I live in a single-digit group to even be alive 20+ years out from my diagnosis.
🎉 Today I am celebrating being alive after living through a profound depressive state when I didn’t want to live another day … almost every day for over five years.
“[You] can allow yourself to observe what is slowly shifting, while also gently reminding yourself that you are within a landscape where slower moments and gradual growth can exist in the same space.” -Morgan Harper Nichols
🎉 Today I am celebrating being alive, being loved, and being in dear and precious relationships (some that survived and became reconciled after the worst of circumstances; I celebrate and hope even though some of my most precious relationships remain estranged).
“[Finding] happiness is not achieved in itself, but rather it is the side effect of a particular set of ongoing life experiences.” -Mark Manson
Sometimes we simply hold space with birthdays and anniversaries as our hearts ache. And that is okay. Be true to what you need and who you are, Braveheart. ❤️❤️❤️
What does this have to do with right brain planning?
Every day is a gift. 🎁 Simple chronicles of the details (thoughts, events and emotions) of our days is a way to cope + know ourselves + map our desires.
Tracking (and reviewing) our thoughts and routine activities [along with whatever has our attention] reveals our beliefs and values—and helps us to discover meaning and the details of our rhythms.
Showing up for ourselves on the page—along with setting aside time and space on a regular basis for both tangible and intangible processing is how we come to identify our desires + get clarity.
- Everything is an opportunity. Everything we have experienced, lived and loved, questioned and lost is a part of our wholeness.
And, Braveheart, there is enough time and space and energy for our dreams and desires, wishes and want-to’s, and our ❤️🩹 healing (even when we doubt all of that).
Our dreams take time. Without some type of visual chronicle to serve as a “map”—as well as a reminder and directive—the timelines of our desires and experiences become jumbled. What matters most becomes ignored and forgotten.
Thank you kindly for your presence here, Braveheart. 💗
I appreciate your interest and support.
~love & good wishes~
⭐️ I am an artist and curator; I am one who communicates with color, found words and collage, inky marks and doodles as I cycle like the moon (as my calendar), chronicling oracles and abiding with the sky as a meditation.
⭐️ I host creative communities, safe spaces for gathering and sharing. I choose love and creativity for coping with the ongoing challenges of this world and I go to work—not because everything is fine but because I believe art heals.
❤️ Braveheart, as the Creator/Artist of Right Brain Planner I am ever-grateful to have the opportunity to share my creative work online + support other creators! 🎉 For almost 20 years I have had the privilege of sharing my art and writing about right brain planning while also hosting kindred 👭🏽💞👭 communities. ✨ I consider it an absolute 🤸 delight to continue this portion of my creative 📝🖌️✂️🫧 work (even as I retire from full-time work).
- This is possible, in part, by {you} and your presence here. But also because of the support of my Ko-fi patrons and the other member/subscriber communities I host (via their presence, input and paid subscriptions). 🫶
- 💁🏻♀️ Other ways to support my work: ❤️ continue to read this blog + follow me on Instagram. 📲
If you already have your own system of creative journal-planning, but are interested in financially supporting my creative work, you may do so by making a donation:
- Make a one-time contribution in any amount via [this link]. (Thank you!) ❤️