2020 Art In Review

I created only ten pieces of art in 2020 (a far lower number than the 98 I did in 2019!). This year's art was also all on a small scale, with all ten measuring 8"x10" in size. Nine were colored pencil drawings that were a part of my "floral attributes" series, and one was a watercolor I painted as a gift for a friend. I knew I wouldn't be nearly as productive as I had been the previous year (and indeed, the reason I made SO much art in 2019 was because I knew I would be busier in 2020, and I wanted to save back some 2019 artwork to fill in the gaps for this blog this year) - but looking at that number ten is still rather shocking at first glance. Ten? Only ten? Sure I was busy, but I definitely had time to do more than 10. Right? 

But when I look at previous years that saw me make only ten (or fewer) pieces of art in the year, it starts to make more sense. 2011, 2012, and 2013 were all also low-output years. These were the three years immediately after I graduated with my BFA from EMU. I was 1) recovering from a bit of an art burnout, 2) focusing much more on graphic design (trying to find a local graphic design job, and also trying to start an invitation design company), and 3) planning for my wedding and our first househunting/home-purchasing/moving adventure.

2020 ticks a lot of those boxes as well. I went really hardcore in 2019 to pump out lots of art, so a bit of art burnout was likely there. 2020 also just had a lot of LIFE burnout. It was hard for ALL of us to be productive this year, with all the anxiety-spiking news making headlines. When you're weighing heavy pros and cons of everyday decisions (Is it safe to go to the grocery store? Is it too risky to visit family?) day in and day out, and your adrenaline is kicked into higher gear - and stays there for months on end - it's hard to focus on ways to channel creativity into productivity. Add to all that becoming a parent for the very first time, and prioritizing caring for our newborn daughter and trying to figure out what to do with her every day in a world where a lot of usual options were suddenly unfeasible... and then also deciding to move, and thus embarking on another househunting/home-purchasing/moving adventure (this time all in the midst of a pandemic no less) - and it's easy to see why my art output was a bit on the skimpy side this year.

I don't bring all this up to self-shame. In 2011-2013 I absolutely shamed myself for my lack of productivity - but I've grown since then, and I'm trying to be less of a perfectionist, and less hard on myself. I'm actually quite proud of my 2020. I accomplished a lot, especially all things considered; it's just that most of those accomplishments weren't art-related. And that's ok. That's the way it is sometimes, when your work is in a creative field. There will be ebbs and flows to your commissions and opportunities, and also ebbs and flows to your work habits and priorities. After 2013, I really prioritized art again, and I turned around those low-output years, coming up with plans for entire series of artworks - one of which I'm still working hard and seeing through. And after this year, I can turn around that low-output again. I have no doubt I will create more art in 2021, after we finish moving in to our new house and I get my new studio set up.

And the art I did work on this year? I'm really proud of it all. Here are 8 of the colored pencil drawings I finished this year (the 9th one I haven't posted on this blog yet - something to look forward to for a 2021 post!):

I also had a lot of success at Rochester Art Market at the Paint Creek Center for the Arts and on Etsy this year, selling notecard sets. My Great Lakes notecards continue to be most popular - but I've sold other notecards as well, especially those in my floral and rainbow alphabet series.

Head over to my Etsy shop to see all the notecard varieties I have to offer! And keep an eye out for some changes coming next year - I have a lot of new notecards on the way soon, featuring drawings from my floral attributes series!

For When Times Are Tough

I've talked in previous posts (Missed Miscarriage, Yellow Nursery Stripes, April 19, From August to August) about the healing process I went through after my miscarriage - facing the grief and finding the strength to try it all again in pursuit of my dreams.

One thing I did was spend a lot of time finding and compiling facts and quotations I found personally helpful. I started with encouraging statistics and uplifting sentiments that were miscarriage-specific, but as I felt emotionally stronger, my document quickly evolved into one filled with more generic advice - something I thought I might be able to refer to again, for any number of losses (deaths, relationships, career choices, self-doubt, etc.), whenever the inevitable next one happened in my life.

Finding these quotations and organizing them into a love letter of sorts/a how-to guide for myself was very therapeutic for me (and admittedly a very "Ravenclaw" thing to do, so I realize it's not everyone's cup of tea...) It was also likely the process of creating the list, more than the actual content, which helped me most, since it necessitated spending time self-reflecting and prioritizing my mental health. I don't know if I actually will refer to this list again in the future; I might compile an entirely new list instead.

Still, I thought I would share some of the quotations I found (and the structure I organized them into), in case this might help anyone else, too. When I find it hard to accept my own thoughts or truly believe my own words, reading the words that others have written can be wonderfully affirming and invaluable.

An abridged version of the document I created is below. (And yes, the full document I wrote - and am still adding to, whenever I find more quotes that speak to me - really is even longer than this!) :)

***

You're allowed to feel the way you feel. You are allowed to grieve for things you've lost. First, you need to give yourself that time.

Then, when the grief is no longer all-consuming, read this letter to remind yourself that you are also allowed to romanticize, reframe, and transform your pain. You do not have to keep living in it.

Some of these sentiments contradict each others; still others are at least occasionally untrue. They may be things you want to believe, but have trouble actually believing. On days when you are determined to get in the way of your own happiness, that may seem like enough reason to reject them. But remember: something does not have to be an absolute truth to be beneficial.

"You're going to live your life based on delusions (and you are, because we all do)... Why not at least select a delusion that is helpful?" (Elizabeth Gilbert - Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear)

Think of this not as a list of truths, but as a list of useful delusions. And if that is not enough - if at any time your grief returns or you don't have it in you to forge continuously ahead - you are allowed to take a step back and grieve all over again. Grief is not linear. The words below will not always give you comfort. But in those moments when you're healed enough to hear them, they are here for you.

"The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining." (John F. Kennedy)

This letter is your roof, and you have prepared it so it will be there for you when next it rains. Use it. May these words inspire you, and may its compilation remind you of your foresight and strength. You have outlived grief in the past, and you will outlive it again.

*

Dear Andrea,

Times are tough right now - so tough that you may want nothing more than to deny it or move quickly past it. But first you need to make sure you've allowed yourself to truly feel your grief. Name it. Analyze it. Confront it. Write about it.

• "Numbing the pain for awhile will make it worse when you finally feel it." (J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)
• "Of all the things in the world, suffering is the most real. You can never ignore it or doubt it." (Yuval Noah Harari - 21 Lessons for the 21st Century)
• "Research has found that the act of not discussing a traumatic event or confiding it to another person can be more damaging than the actual event... Writing about traumatic experience can produce measurable changes in physical and mental health." (Brene Brown - Daring Greatly)
• "To survive something we first need to know what it is we're surviving." (Miriam Toews - All My Puny Sorrows)

To be human is to grieve, and for better or worse, you are a part of the web of humanity.

• "Every human requires food and water to survive and every human has a heart that bleeds, loves, and grieves." (Suzy Kassem - Rise Up and Salute the Sun)
• "Life isn't pretty / We all get a little wrecked sometimes." (The Veronicas - On Your Side)
• "You are allowed to feel messed up and inside out. It doesn't mean you're defective - it just means you're human." (David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas)
• "Life is a series of losses... We're all terminal." (Kate Bowler - Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved)
• "There's always gonna be another mountain / I'm always gonna wanna make it move / Always gonna be an uphill battle / Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose" (Miley Cyrus - The Climb)
• "It if don't hurt now, just wait, just wait awhile / Ain't in fun / Living in the real world" (Paramore - Ain't It Fun)

Life is, at times, inexplicably and inescapably awful. The bad and good in life are permanently tied up in each other. Uncleavable.

• "I've made some friends, and I've lost some too." (Andrew McMahon - Cecilia and the Satellites)
• "You know time will give and time will take." (Phillip Phillips - Raging Fire)
• "I can't reconcile the way that the world is jolted by events that are wonderful and terrible, the gorgeous and the tragic. Except that I am beginning to believe that these opportunities do not cancel each other out. Life is so beautiful. Life is so hard." (Kate Bowler - Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved)

You did nothing to deserve this pain. You did nothing wrong. In fact - you're doing everything right. You're hurt right now because in trying to experience all the good that life has to offer, you also stumbled upon the bad. You lost because you were brave enough to try to win.

• "Now we're falling through the ice / We made our bed and rolled the dice / Well every gamble has a price." (Banners - Empires on Fire)
• "Everybody tries to put some love on the line / And everybody feels a broken heart sometimes." (Teddy Geiger - These Walls)
• "The sorrow we feel when we lose a loved one is the price we pay to have had them in our lives." (Rob Liano)
• "What are you passionate enough about that you can endure the most disagreeable aspects of it?" (Elizabeth Gilbert - Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear)

When you love someone or something, you make yourself vulnerable to loss.

• "The course of true love never did run smooth." (William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream)
• "Love is uncertain. It is incredibly risky. And loving someone leaves us emotionally exposed." (Brene Brown - Daring Greatly)
• "Where there is desire, there is gonna be a flame / Where there is a flame, someone's bound to get burned." (Pink - Try)
• "I find it bittersweet / 'Cause you gave me something to lose / If you love someone and you're not afraid to lose 'em / You'll probably never love someone like I do." (Lukas Graham - Love Someone)
• "He who loves 50 people has 50 woes; he who loves no one has no woes." (Buddha)
• "Here's the truth: Who is spared love is spared grief." (David Mitchell - Bone Clocks)

But that is no reason not to love, or live.

• "Vulnerability is the core, the heart, the center of meaningful human experiences... To foreclose on our emotional life out of a fear that the costs will be too high is to walk away from the very thing that gives purpose and meaning to living... Living without connections - without knowing love and belonging - is not victory." (Brene Brown - Daring Greatly)
• "When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability. To be alive is to be vulnerable." (Madeleine L'Engle)
• "Love doesn't discriminate / Between the sinners and the saints / It takes and it takes and it takes / And we keep loving anyway... Death doesn't discriminate / Between the sinners and the saints / It takes and it takes and it takes / And we keep living anyway" (Hamilton Soundtrack -Wait for It)
• "Hope that you fall in love / And it hurts so bad / The only way you can know / You gave it all you had." (One Republic - I Lived)
• "If this love is pain, well darling, let's hurt tonight." (One Republic - Let's Hurt Tonight)

If we try to avoid the bad, we will fail to experience any of the good. There is nothing to do but lean in and embrace it all.

• "The world is an ugly place. We must live in it." (Madeline Miller - Circe)
• "If you hide under the covers / You might never see the light of day" (Mary Poppins Returns - Trip a Little Light Fantastic)
• "Numbing vulnerability doesn't just deaden the pain of our difficult experiences; numbing vulnerability also dulls our experiences of love, joy, belonging, creativity, and empathy. We can't selectively numb emotion. Numb the dark and you numb the light." (Brene Brown - Daring Greatly)
• "Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action." (Benjamin Disraeli)
• "You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could." (Louise Erdrich - The Painted Drum)

Practice fearlessness - even when you're afraid.

• "Even when I'm scared I have to try to fly / Sometimes I fall / But I've seen it done before / I gotta step outside these walls" (Teddy Geiger - These Walls)
• "If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever." (Thomas Aquinas)
• "You have plenty of courage. All you need is confidence in yourself. There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid." (L. Frank Baum - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
• "I wanted you to see what real courage is. It's when you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what." (Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird)
• "Living a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear... You have to be willing to take risks if you want to live a creative existence." (Elizabeth Gilbert - Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear)
• "May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears." (Nelson Mandela)

We can't choose what happens to us when we try. But we can choose to try anyway. And the act of making that choice both forges and proves our inner strength.

• "There are only two mistakes one can make: not going all the way, and not starting." (Buddha)
• "I am not what has happened to me. I am what I choose to become." (Carl Jung)
• "Vulnerability is not weakness, and the uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure we face every day are not optional. Our only choice is a question of engagement. Our willingness to own and engage with our vulnerability determines the depth of our courage and the clarity of our purpose." (Brene Brown - Daring Greatly)
• "It was the difference between being dragged into the area to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but... there was all the difference in the world." (J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)
• "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena... who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly." (Theodore Roosevelt)

Picking yourself up and trying again is a choice you may have to make over and over again. But you can, and you will.

• "Just because it burns doesn't mean you're gonna die / You gotta get up and try, try, try" (Pink - Try)
• "Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent." (Marilyn vos Savant)
• "You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it." (Margaret Thatcher)
• "This is how things go. You fix them, and they go awry, and then you fix them again." (Madeline Miller - Circe)
• "It was important to fight, and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then could evil be kept at bay, though never quite eradicated." (J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)
• "Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall." (Confucius)
• "I'll rise up / High like the waves / I'll rise up / In spite of the ache / I'll rise up / And I'll do it a thousand times again." (Andra Day - Rise Up)

You will glean wisdom from this pain. It will grow you and deepen you.

• "Experience is the only thing that brings knowledge and the longer you are on earth the more experiences you are sure to get." (L. Frank Baum - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
• "Biology gives you a brain. Life turns it into a mind." (Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex)
• "It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be." (J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)
• "People who only have good experiences aren't very interesting. They may be content, and happy after a fashion, but they aren't very deep." (Peter Cameron - Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You)
• "The goal is not getting comfortable, but normalizing discomfort. We need to cultivate the courage to be uncomfortable and to teach people around us how to accept discomfort as a part of growth." (Brene Brown - Daring Greatly)
• "Don't give in / Don't you dare quit so easy / There is a lot we can learn from this loss" (Snow Patrol - Don't Give In)
• "It's times like these you learn to live again / It's times like these you give and give again / It's times like these / Time and time again" (Foo Fighters - Times Like These)

Suffering brings enlightenment and empathy.

• "The wound is the place where the Light enters you." (Rumi)
• "I had to go through hell to prove I'm not insane / Had to meet the devil just to know his name." (Ella Henderson - Ghost)
• "Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity of our purpose or deeper or more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path. (Brene Brown - Daring Greatly)
• "There is no shame in what you are feeling. On the contrary, the fact that you can feel pain like this is your greatest strength." (J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)
• "My own suffering began to feel like it had revealed to me the suffering of others, a world of those who, like me, are stumbling in the debris of dreams they thought they were entitled to and plans they didn't realize they had made." (Kate Bowler - Everything Happens For a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved)
• "The pain sculpts us into someone who understands more deeply, hurts more often, appreciates more quickly, cries more easily, hopes more desperately, and loves more openly." (Unknown)
• "In order to act morally...you need to develop a deep appreciation of suffering... And if you want to know the truth of the universe, about the meaning of life, and about your own identity, the best place to start is by observing suffering and exploring what it is." (Yuval Noah Harari - 21 Lessons for the 21st Century)
• "Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others." (Pema Chodron)

You are a block of marble, and pain is the chisel gradually shaping you into the masterpiece that you are. It's good that difficult times are inevitable - because they are also useful.

• "Under this pressure, under this weight / We are diamonds taking shape" (Coldplay - Adventure of a Lifetime)
• "Grief does not change you. It reveals you." (John Green - The Fault in Our Stars)
• "Even if I could [erase your scars], I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground." (J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)
• "The scars themselves I offered to wipe away. He shook his head. 'How would I know myself?' They suited him. Whoever saw him must salute and say: There is a man who has seen the world. There is a captain with stories to tell." (Madeline Miller - Circe)
• "I am brave, I am bruised / I am who I'm meant to be / This is me." (Keala Settle, The Greatest Showman Soundtrack - This is Me)

Life is built from pain; so use your pain to build the life you desire. Treat this experience as nourishment for your soul and the spark that can light your creative projects.

• "The winter's cold / But the snow still lightly settles on the trees / And a mess is still a moment I can seize" (Gabe Dixon Band - All Will Be Well)
• "You're going to go through tough times - that's life. But I say, 'Nothing happens to you, it happens for you.' See the positive in negative events." (Joel Osteen)
• "I cannot bear this world a moment longer... Then child, make another." (Madeline Miller - Circe)
• "The opposite of war isn't peace... It's creation!" (Rent Soundtrack - La Vie Boheme)
• "Grief needs an outlet. Creativity offers one." (Hope Edelman)
• "Artists crave experiences because that's how they make art." (Whitney Scharer - The Age of Light)
• "Pick up a pen, start writing / I wanna talk about what I have learned / The hard-won wisdom I have earned." (Hamilton Soundtrack - One Last Time)

There is a time in every compelling narrative when things get difficult. Without conflict to overcome, there is no story. It is not easy - but it is worth it.

• "There was only one way to the other side, and that was through the pain." (Vanessa Diffenbaugh - The Language of Flowers)
• "The harder the struggle, the more glorious the triumph." (Unknown)
• "Such narrative arcs make good movies but shitty existences." (David Mitchell - Bone Clocks)
• "I guess the bad can get better / Gotta be wrong before it's right / But still the growing pains, growing pains are keeping me up at night" (Alessia Cara - Growing Pains)
• "You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost." (Helen Keller)

Challenging times are opportunities to remind yourself what you're made of, and chances to grow further evidence of your tenacity and success.

• "When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways - either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength." (Dalai Lama)
• "Grief and resilience live together." (Michelle Obama - Becoming)
• "What does not destroy me makes me stronger." (Friedrich Nietzsche)
• "Do not confuse my bad days as a sign of weakness. Those are the days I am actually fighting my hardest." (Unknown)
• "Experience gives us the advantage of knowing that we can survive the exposure and uncertainty, and that it's worth the risk." (Brene Brown - Daring Greatly)
• "You can take everything I have / You can take everything I am / Like I'm made of glass, like I'm made of paper / Go on and try to tear me down / I will keep rising from the ground / Like a skyscraper" (Demi Lovato - Skyscraper)

In the future, you will cherish the memories of this experience, and draw on them for comfort and strength.

• "Give it all or give it up / I won't settle for enough / It's the highs and it's the lows we remember" (Ocean Park Standoff - Good News)
• "There will be a sea of tears / But sooner or later the sea will dry up / And you'll learn to embrace the wet sand revealed." (Sanhita Baruah)
• "One day in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful." (Sigmund Freud)
• "Someday you're gonna look back on this moment of your life as such a sweet time of grieving. You'll see that you were in mourning and your heart was broken, but your life was changing." (Elizabeth Gilbert)

Your narrative is your own narrative, and it will follow its own timeline.

• "There is purpose in your season of waiting." (Megan Smalley)
• "Time is a force and we must allow it to do its work, must respect its power." (Miriam Toews - All My Puny Sorrows)
• "Anxiety happens when you think you have to figure out everything all at once. Breathe. You're strong. You got this. Take it day by day." (Karen Salmansohn)
• "If we walk far enough, we shall sometime come to someplace." (L. Frank Baum - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
• "Don't rush through the experiences and circumstances that have the most capacity to transform you." (Rob Bell)

Don't worry about what future bad things might happen.

• "Contemplating the task ahead would not make it easier." (J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)
• "I don't think being frightened will help." (Madeline Miller - Circe)
• "Worry does not take away tomorrow's troubles. It takes away today's peace." (Randy Armstrong)
• "No good sittin' worryin' about it. What's comin' will come, an' we'll meet it when it does." (J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

Don't wallow in what would've-could've-should've been, either.

• "Nostalgia is a dangerous form of comparison." (Brene Brown - Daring Greatly)
• "You're holding on to what you never had" (Hailee Steinfeld - Let Go)
• "Don't fall in love with the way things were / It'll fuck up your mind" (Snow Patrol - Don't Give In)
• "Leave the past behind you. If you don't leave it there, it clutters everything up and you just keep tripping over it." (Laini Taylor - Muse of Nightmares)
• "May your past be the sound / Of your feet upon the ground / And carry on" (Fun. - Carry On)

Focus instead on the vast potential of your present and future - the things that are still changeable, the successes and joys you've yet to see. Allow yourself to be happy and optimistic. Allow yourself to hope and dream and want things.

• "Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose." (Lyndon B. Johnson)
• "It is as wrong to deny the possible as it is to deny the problem." (Dr. Dennis Saleebey)
• "We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world." (Jack Gilbert)
• "You'll never find a rainbow if you're looking down." (Charlie Chaplin)
• "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." (Oscar Wilde)
• "Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light." (J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
• "The world unwraps itself to you, again and again as soon as you are ready to see it anew." (Gregory Maguire - Wicked)

Allow yourself to try again - to throw yourself back into the fray, to make new plans and follow through on them.

• "It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live." (J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)
• "Life won't just happen to you. You have to happen to it." (Laini Taylor - Strange the Dreamer)
• "Hope is a combination of setting goals, having the tenacity and perseverance to pursue them, and believing in our own abilities." (Brene Brown - Daring Greatly)
• "Wishes don't just come true. They're only the target you paint around what you want. You still have to hit the bull's-eye yourself." (Laini Taylor - Muse of Nightmares)

Life doles out enough grief without you willfully adding more as a form of self-punishment. You don't have to wallow in it and invite it to prolong its stay in your heart.

• "I keep dragging around what's bringing me down / If I just let go, I'd be set free" (Linkin Park/Kiiara - Heavy)
• "All the broken hearts in the world still beat / Let's not make it harder than it has to be" (Ingrid Michaelson - Girls Chase Boys)
• "All my life had been murk and depths, but I was not a part of that dark water. I was a creature within it." (Madeline Miller - Circe)
• "I'd been stoking the most negative parts of myself, caught up in the notion that everything was unfair and then assiduously, like a Harvard-trained lawyer, collecting evidence to feed that hypothesis. I now tried out a new hypothesis: It was possible that I was more in charge of my happiness than I was allowing myself to be." (Michelle Obama - Becoming)
• "Our creativity grows like sidewalk weeds out of the cracks between our pathologies - not from the pathologies themselves... I refuse to seek out suffering in the name of artistic authenticity." (Elizabeth Gilbert - Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear)

Don't let hopelessness catch you in its spiral, telling you that where you are now is where you will remain forever. This is a self-fulling prophecy, a trap - and to believe such absolutes is a form of arrogance. You do not know what is to come.

• "Please keep in mind that whatever you're going through, this challenging time in your life is merely IN your life. It is not your whole life. So be sure to keep this slice of life in perspective and don't let it overwhelm you. Remember: nothing is everything. The part is not greater than the whole." (Karen Salmansohn)
• "Tone down the prophecies of doom and switch from panic mode to bewilderment. Panic is a form of hubris. It comes from the smug feeling that one knows exactly where the world is heading: down. Bewilderment is more humble and therefore more clear-sighted... Try telling yourself, 'Truth is, I just don't understand what's going on.'" (Yuval Noah Harari - 21 Lessons for the 21st Century)
• "Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will." (Suzy Kassem)
• "Just because something isn't happening for you right now doesn't mean that it will never happen." (Unknown)
• "In this sad world of ours sorrow comes to all and it often comes with bitter agony. You may believe that you will never feel better. But this is not true. You are sure to be happy again." (Abraham Lincoln)

It is often easier to fall for that trap of depression than it is to remain hopeful - but just because something is easy does not mean it is the best course.

• "There will be a time when we must choose between what is easy and what is right." (J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)
• "He had been broken and reassembled as a shell, only then to do the bravest thing of all: He had kept on living, though there are easier paths to take." (Laini Taylor - Strange the Dreamer)
• "Dying is easy - living is harder" (Hamilton Soundtrack - Right Hand Man)
• "We must try not to sink beneath our anguish, but battle on." (J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)
• "Don't squander joy. We can't prepare for tragedy and loss. When we turn every opportunity to feel joy into a test drive for despair, we actually diminish our resilience. Every time we allow ourselves to lean into joy and give in to those moments, we build resilience and we cultivate hope." (Brene Brown - Daring Greatly)
• "Healing takes courage, and we all have courage, even if we have to dig a little to find it." (Tori Amos)

Faith is fuel, keeping you moving through long stretches of desert. Belief in the future, in a light you cannot see, is not foolishness, but bravery.

• "You don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step." (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
• "You need a leap of faith to leave your old life behind. True metamorphosis doesn't come with flowcharts." (David Mitchell - Bone Clocks)
• "That's what faith is, isn't it? Following the music when we don't hear it." (Francisco X. Stork - Marcelo in the Real World)

Believe in yourself. Forgive yourself. Be kind to yourself.

• "Never apologize, never explain it away, never be ashamed of it. You did your best with what you knew, and you worked with what you had, in the time that you were given." (Elizabeth Gilbert - Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear)
• "Cultivate the courage to be imperfect and self-compassionate. Perfectionism is not the path that leads us to our gifts and to our sense of purpose; it is a hazardous detour... Our worthiness, that core belief that we are enough, comes only when we own our stories (even the messy ones)." (Brene Brown - Daring Greatly)
• "Even when it's not pretty or perfect. Even when it's more real than you want it to be. Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own." (Michelle Obama - Becoming)
• "We have to be willing to give ourselves a break and appreciate the beauty of our cracks and imperfections. To be kinder and gentler with ourselves and each other. To talk to ourselves the same way we'd talk to someone we care about." (Brene Brown - Daring Greatly)
• "You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection." (Buddha)

There are things that are going to be outside your control. Understanding that is not an admission of failure, but an important step toward acceptance.

• "Control is a drug, and we are all hooked, whether or not we truly believe that we can master the future with our words and attitudes. The entire motivational-speaking industry rests on the assumption that you can have what you want, you can be what you want... [and that] there is a hidden logic to this seeming chaos... [But] nothing human or divine will map out this life, this life that has been more painful than I could have imagined. More beautiful than I could have imagined." (Kate Bowler - Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved)
• "Someday it might make sense to you - why you needed to go through this botched-up mess in order to land in a better place. Or maybe it will never make sense. So be it. Move on anyway." (Elizabeth Gilbert - Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear)
• "'It is not fair' and 'It cannot be' are two different things." (Madeline Miller - Circe)
• "Fairness is one of the most compelling claims of the American Dream, a vision of success propelled by hard work, determination, and maybe the occasional pair of bootstraps... In a world of fair, nothing clung to can ever slip away... Give up that little piece of the American Dream that says 'You are limitless'. Everything is not possible." (Kate Bowler - Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved)

But just because some things are uncontrollable does not mean everything is. Control what you can. Even when you are swimming in uncertainty, there is always something you can do. You can try to enjoy today.

• "We are never so wise as when we live in this moment." (Paul Kalanithi - When Breath Becomes Air)
• "Do not save this for tomorrow / Embrace the past and you can live for now / This is the new year / A new beginning" (A Great Big World - This is the New Year)
• "There's only now / There's only here/ Give in to love / Or live in fear / No other path / No other way / No day but today" (Rent Soundtrack - Another Day)

Be grateful for where you are right now. If your lungs are still breathing, your heart still beating, you have at least two things to marvel at.

• "A rainy day is better than no day." (Rachel Simon - The Story of Beautiful Girl)
• "Even if I'm dying, until I actually die, I am still living." (Paul Kalanithi - When Breath Becomes Air)
• "Live unburdened. Live free. Live without forevers that don't always come... The water is rising and levees may break and it will sweep us all away. But until then, I am here." (Kate Bowler - Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved)
• "Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now / Look at where you are / Look at where you started / The fact that you're alive is a miracle / Just stay alive, that would be enough" (Hamilton Soundtrack - That Would Be Enough)
• "Aging is a fucking privilege." (Kate Bowler - Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved)
• "It doesn't mean that it does not hurt. It doesn't mean that we are not frightened. Only that: we are here. This is what it means to swim in the tide, to walk the earth and feel it touch your feet. This is what it means to be alive." (Madeline Miller - Circe)

Remember: if the bad and good are permanently tied up in each other, that means good times are also inevitable. Good times are coming. You will get through this. This too shall pass.

• "If life didn't change, it wouldn't be life, it'd be a photograph." (David Mitchell - Bone Clocks)
• "Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise." (Victor Hugo)
• "It's been a long cold lonely winter / It feels like years since it's been here... Here comes the sun / Here comes the sun, and I say / It's alright" (The Beatles - Here Comes the Sun)
• "All will be well / You can ask me how but only time will tell" (Gabe Dixon Band - All Will Be Well)
• "This feeling will pass. This workload will pass. These people will pass. This moment will pass. This fatigue will pass." (Lin-Manuel Miranda - Gmorning Gnight)
• "It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small / And the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all" (Frozen Soundtrack - Let it Go)
• "Pain will come with time, but time will heal the pain." (Anthony Liccione)

Letting go of the comfort of grieving can be difficult. But you are capable of accomplishing this final hurdle in moving on. Just because something is gone does not mean it will be forgotten.

• "I wanna let go but there's comfort in the panic" (Linkin Park/Kiiara - Heavy)
• "The brain is built to forget things as we continue to live; memories are meant to fade and disintegrate and sharp edges become blunt; the pain of letting go of grief is just as painful or even more painful than the grief itself. It means goodbye." (Miriam Toews - All My Puny Sorrows)
• "This is what I know about loss: It doesn't get better. You just get (somewhat) used to it." (Jennifer Niven - Holding Up the Universe)
• "You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us? You think that we don't recall them more clearly in times of great trouble?" (J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
• "Nothing's really left or loss without a trace / Nothing's gone forever - only out of place... Maybe all you're missing lives inside of you" (Mary Poppins Returns - Where Lost Things Go)

I love you and I believe in you.

Love, Andrea

April 19

Today, April 19 is the due date my pregnancy would've had, if it had gone to term. When I miscarried back in September, this due date still felt very far away; I thought for sure I'd be pregnant again by the time April 19 finally rolled around, and be able to use that new pregnancy for solace. But trying to conceive after miscarriage has unfortunately turned into a longer journey than I anticipated, and as much as I wish I had good news to share right now - I don't.

There are days (this week in particular) when it's hard not to focus on the could've-beens, thinking about that alternate universe where my pregnancy went to term and I became a mother this week. There are other days when it's hard to remain optimistic about getting pregnant again. There are days when I feel like a failure. Though deep down I know it's not my fault and there's nothing else I could be doing right now to try to make this work, a part of me still feels like I'm letting everyone down (myself included) every month that my period shows up again. I feel like I'm depriving the people I care about from the happy ending they're waiting to hear.

In moments of defeatism, I have several quotes I turn to for inspiration. My favorite right now is this one, from Helen Keller: “Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.” I remind myself that even though we can't control the outcome, we can keep trying anyway... and then try to find hope in our resilience. Many days, this doesn't feel like enough. I want to do more than that, have control over more than that. But at least that's something.

These are not things we usually talk about. Worse, these are things that are hard to talk about. It's hard to post about disappointments and things that feel like personal failures - especially on social media platforms where most people only post their success stories, happy memories, and best selfies. It's hard to admit that there are things we can't earn just by wanting, just by trying. It's even hard to admit to wanting something at all, in a world that encourages us to blow out birthday candles and wish on shooting stars in silence. Not only is vulnerability hard - but, we are taught, also punishable. Share your deepest hopes and dreams aloud, and risk seeing them "jinxed" and never fulfilled.

But as hard as it is to be vulnerable - especially with something like this, where I'm still in the middle of the story, without any idea of how long I'll be here - it's also hard to be lonely. And going through a miscarriage and trying to conceive are often very lonely endeavors. When you're struggling with something privately, and your pain goes unrecognized, it's hard not to start feeling invisible. And that's a shitty thing to feel, on top of everything else.

Which is why I'm sharing all this. I debated with myself for a long time about whether or not to post anything, writing and rewriting several drafts over the last several days, weeks, months... Ultimately I decided that, at least this week, I want to be visible again (and I deserve to be). I want my experience to be acknowledged, my pain to be just a little less private - if only for a moment.

You can read more about my miscarriage here - the post I wrote last October 15 for Pregnancy Loss Remembrance Day.

Personal Values

A couple years ago, I took the time to think about and explicitly define my personal values. Not other people's values, or what society as a whole seems to value, or even what I wanted to value - but the things I naturally, innately valued: the things I've been prioritizing and living my life according to all along (or trying to prioritize and live my life according to), without even realizing it.

Now, "innate" doesn't mean these things are easy for me to prioritize - on the contrary, there were many times in my life when these values were incredibly difficult to believe in at all, let alone base my behaviors on. But it is precisely this - that these beliefs and behaviors would persist even when it would've been easier to forget them or change - that helped convince me they were my core values after all. These are things that some part of me has always believed, even when other parts of me were actively resisting and trying not to.

Maybe it seems odd to put in the effort of putting my values into words, when on some subconscious level I already knew what they were. I find it helpful, though - not only for my personal edification and trying to better understand myself, but also to use as a tool in times of stress. So often when I feel stressed, it's because I've started listening to other people instead of myself. I've forgotten what I usually or innately prioritize, or even somehow talked myself into trying to change those priorities to look like something else - something decidedly not me. Referring to my list of personal values in these moments can help me identify which of my values I've been neglecting and help me refocus my priorities. Other times, I'm stressed because my current situation is making it difficult for me to live according to my values, which is upsetting and frustrating. In this case, too, referring to my list of personal values is helpful, because it illuminates which of my values are currently threatened, which in turn helps me figure out how to find another way to fulfill those values despite my circumstances. 

Today I'd like to share my list of values with you. Some may look familiar, being values you also have; others might be completely foreign and not something you'd at all agree with. I'm not passing judgment on these values as inherently superior to anyone else's - these just happen to be the values I've inherited or cultivated over the years and which now truly feel like a part of me, woven into my very essence. It took lots of self-reflection, recalling countless memories, and going through old journals, researching and collecting evidence from my own life, to come up with this list - and I still occasionally revise it from time to time. It's not set it stone; it's a living document, and it changes as I continue living. 

There are seven values altogether, divided into two broader categories. Under each value, I've also written "I will" statements, to give myself examples and encouragement for how I can live my life according to that particular value. These statements are meant as inspiration, and are not indicative of how I always think or behave... but I do have several examples of times in my life where I have done those things, which I read both to remind myself what I'm capable of, and to remind myself that these really are my values, and have always, on some level, been my values. (After all, if they weren't my values, I wouldn't have this pattern of past behaviors which seems to reflect them.) I've also included some of those examples here, underneath the main list of values - quotes from my private journals and private/public blogs.

**

My values:

A. I am self-sufficient and I have self-worth.

1. I know what I want, and recognize if I'm not getting it. If I am not provided with what I want, I work toward it by myself, for myself.

• I will allow myself to need things, want things, and hope for things, and I will practice recognizing what I need, want, and hope.

• If I need something from someone else, I will speak up and fight for what I need.

• If I want to learn something or do something or have something or participate in something, I will find a way to do it or ask for it (in the best way I know how at the time).

• I will continue to set personal, creative, intellectual, emotional, and physical goals, which represent accomplishments that are personal priorities for me; and I will continue to pursue these goals, for myself.

2. I believe I am worthy and deserving of being treated with respect and kindness. I put a lot of energy into empathizing and trying to understand others, and I get upset when I don't get this kindness and understanding in return that I know I deserve.

• I will choose to surround myself with people who give me that kindness and respect.

• If someone repeatedly denies me the respect and kindness I deserve, I will not allow them to play a significant role in my life.

B. I cherish the things that make me human and I value the time nurturing these pursuits.

3. I value my intellect and stretching and nurturing my knowledge and understanding of the world.

• I will continue to take classes, learn new things, read books, do research, flex my "insight" muscles, make connections, and develop my own way of understanding the world.

• I will immerse myself in these intellectual pursuits for myself, researching and exploring the topics that are interesting or meaningful to me.

• I will take pride in the personal language and metaphors I create and use to describe my unique understanding of the world.

4. I like trying to understand myself and trying to understand other people. I practice compassion, kindness, and empathy towards others. I like connecting with others (especially on a deeper, emotional level) and feeling like a part of the web of humanity.

• I will prioritize tending my emotions, journaling, chronicling and revisiting my memories, writing and rewriting my life's narrative, defining my personal values, and establishing my self-identity.

• I will seek out and experience others' creative outputs/understandings of humanity by reading fiction and nonfiction, listening to music, watching television shows or movies, attending theater productions, visiting museums, and contemplating visual artwork.

• I will strengthen the relationships I have with the kind, respectful people in my life by initiating or participating in heartfelt, honest conversations.

• I will pursue friendships and find meaningful ways of connecting with new people.

5. I am emotional - and I value my emotions and my ability to demonstrate them. I use multiple different avenues to feel, and to express and share my feelings and opinions with others. I believe that my feelings and opinions are worth sharing with others, because I have a unique voice and insights to offer the world.

• I will acknowledge the emotions I have, and not shame myself for feeling or expressing them.

• I will allow myself to cry, and to stop crying, to feel emotion every day, and revisit the same emotions over and over.

• I will listen to or watch media that encourage me to feel.

• I will allow myself to express my emotions in front of the trustworthy people closest to me.

• I will write, draw, and paint with the specific intent to share my thoughts or feelings with others. I will craft my message carefully and pointedly, with honesty, heartfelt emotion, and eager vulnerability. And I will work to share these insightful creations with others.

6. I value my creativity and exploring artistic pursuits.

• I will create spontaneous art and writing for myself, giving myself permission to use art and creative writing as a personal relaxation or therapeutic technique, or to simply enjoy the aspects of creation, making a mess, and working intuitively without forethought or concern with the art/writing's marketability or message.

• I will learn new artistic or writing techniques and familiarize myself with new artistic materials, both on my own as a method of play and in a more formal classroom/group setting, to expand my horizons, embrace the process of art-making and writing, connect with others who have similar interests, and have fun.

7. I am independent, inquisitive, adventurous, and brave. I like trying new things and forging my own path. I like exploring my environment and exploring new places. I want to experience everything. I want to take advantage of opportunities, and to be able to say I really lived my life.

• I will prioritize traveling, exposing myself to new environments and new opportunities to see and experience the world.

• I will chronicle my experiences through photography and journaling to remind myself of all the place I've been/things I've done.

• I will strike out on my own to try new and potentially scary things.

• If there is something I want to try, I will not let being alone in this desire, fear of what others might think of me, or others' risk aversion hold me back.

• If there is something I want to do that is not organically presented to me, I will seek out and cultivate these opportunities myself.

**

Category B was easier for me to pinpoint - they are characteristics about myself I have been more likely to embrace throughout my life, values that were less "hidden" from me. I wanted to take as many classes as I could, in high school and college both, trying to balance my love of learning about a wide range of topics with my specific passions of art and writing. When time or scheduling restraints preventing me from doing everything I wanted to, I prioritized learning, writing, or creating art in my spare time as well. And even when my emotions and experiences were invalidated or written off by others, I persisted over the years in writing on Livejournal, Facebook, and various blogs, because I believed my feelings and opinions were worth sharing with others (whether a select group of trustworthy friends, strangers, or some combination thereof). I've always loved making deep, emotional connections with others - whether in person or online or with fictional characters - and feeling like a part of the web of humanity.

• From 11/18/2005: "I'm disappointed already because our high school has some really cool classes that I never had time to take... just wait until I graduate college. I want to take ALL the classes!"

• From 4/2/2006: "There's something almost cathartic about hanging out backstage with theater people. All that energy and excitement. Now that the show is over, I'll miss the sense of community. It never ceases to amaze me how everyone can bond so quickly in just a couple of weeks. I love it."

• From 6/29/2006: "Even if not professionally, I hope to always draw and write, just for my own benefit. Art is something to look forward to, something to work at, something to accomplish, something to be proud of. Honestly, I can't imagine my life without drawing of some sort, even if it's just doodling cartoons, because drawing has been a part of me for so long."

• From 8/15/2006: "Things that make me smile: crazy dreams, writing something good, drawing something good, buying school supplies, and embarking on new academic adventures."

• From 1/5/2007: "It makes me a little sad, to lose something that was such a large part of my life, but in the end I think it tore me away from people more than it brought me closer to them. It kept me from understanding certain things or empathizing with people by hardening my heart to those who were different from me, and that's not something I'm okay with."

• From 9/15/2007: "I want to witness stories and empathize with people. But I can't be that kind of person easily - because I've conditioned myself to often be emotionally detached, telling myself that emotion is weakness. So just because connecting with other people is something I genuinely want to do does not mean it's something I'm always able to do - and knowing that, admitting that, makes me feel so sad and overwhelmed."

• From 12/5/2007: "My art history paper had to be 15 pages long; mine is 28. I just got so excited to do the research and got really interested in it!"

• From 3/14/2008: "Oh well. It doesn't mean I won't read and write in my spare time, even if I can't fit English and Creative Writing classes into my schedule."

• From 9/3/2008: "I want art to just take me in any and every direction it can; I don't want to limit myself to one thing. I want to have a concentration in everything."

• From 11/1/2010: "I really don't want to settle for a job I don't want, when I believe I'm capable of better things and know how important growing and challenging myself are to me."

• From 5/9/2011: "I want to nurture my authenticity - that is, being true to myself and doing what I really want to do. I want to do at least one authentic thing a day - one thing I do just for myself, just because I want to, because it's who I am."

Category A, however, was not something I initially included in my list of values at all. I knew that I wanted to believe I was self-sufficient and had self-worth - but I didn't think that I already believed those things, just that they were beliefs I was trying to acquire, in order to raise my low self-esteem. If you've ever tried to convince yourself to believe something, you know that it's a daunting task - raising my low self-esteem therefore seemed to require Herculean effort. How was I supposed to convince myself to believe I was capable of seeing myself as worthy and deserving of kindness and respect, or practice recognizing what I wanted and working toward such goals, if I'd spent so many years doing exactly the opposite?

But then I noticed something, reading through old journals. Whenever I wasn't treated with respect and kindness, I got angry and upset. I wouldn't have felt that way if I truly believed I didn't deserve those things. 

• From 9/26/2005: "What about me? Can't I be happy too? I deserve more than what I've been getting lately."

• From 5/17/2006: "I'm trying not to be bitter, I really am. But I guess I still can't help but feel that all my hard work has gone unnoticed or unacknowledged."

• From 10/1/2006: "I would never have said that to them, because I would never want to hurt them. Did they not even think about how this might make me feel?"

• From 7/16/2007: "I don't think you realize how much it hurts when you treat me this way - or else why would you continue, if you knew how much it kills me? What do you hope to gain? There is only so much I can take before I just can't bottle up my feelings anymore."

What's more - when I understood (even on a subconscious level) that I was lacking something important, I tried to do something about it. Even if it turned out to be a dysfunctional coping mechanism in the end, it was still an attempt to provide myself with what I needed, with whatever resources I had to work with or understanding I had about the situation at the time.

This went for showing myself respect and kindness, too. I wanted to be nicer to myself, to stop self-abusing, and learn how to have better self-esteem. It was a cycle I got stuck in often in middle school, high school, college, and even after - being critical and awful to myself, and then vowing to be better.

• From 2003: "I guess I'm stuck being me. Maybe one day that'll make me happy. Maybe one day I'll be proud of myself. But for now I guess I'm here, hoping that maybe that 'one day' is near."

• From 2004: "I'm sick of beating myself up. I'm tired of being a perfectionist. I try too hard. I care too much. Enough is enough."

• From 12/31/2005: "I will work on being happier, especially with myself. I need more self-confidence."

• From 11/7/2006: "I am too critical of myself. I want to be nicer to myself."

• From 12/27/2008: "I wish I'd done less over-analyzing things, disliking myself, and stressing out in 2008. I'm still learning how to stop judging myself so harshly, but I'll get there."

• From 1/8/2011: "I love the rare times I believe in myself (though I bet I'd like them even more if they were less rare)."

It was eye-opening to discover how many of those entries there were in my journals over the years - and a relief. It meant that, while a part of me had spent years (decades) being overly critical and abusive to myself, there was always some part of me who stubbornly persisted on seeing my self-worth. It meant that I didn't have to teach myself from scratch how to value myself after all - just that I had to cultivate that part of me that already existed. It felt like less of a Sisyphean struggle after that; it felt like a cycle I could actually escape.

And so I included those Category A statements in my list of personal values as well - and it was those more than the ones about creating art or writing blog posts or learning new things that I'm really talking about when I said earlier that it was important and helpful to me to take the time to put those values down into words. Those are the values I haven't always let myself believe in, the values that haven't come easily to me - but things I kept trying to believe anyway, even while other parts of me were actively resisting.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, it's been a couple years now since writing these values down and firmly asserting to myself, without a shadow of a doubt, that these are statements I actually believe, and have always believed. I'd been slowly growing more comfortable with myself and allowing myself to cultivate my self-esteem anyway, but writing down this list made those pursuits even easier. I can honestly say that I've never felt more content with and proud of myself than I have in recent years. I've had moments of pride before, of course - but they often grew from someone else being proud of me for something I'd accomplished. They were moments of external validation that I'd internalized, rather than internal validation that persisted no matter what tangible things I was accomplishing, what goals I was seeing to completion, or what others might be thinking of me. 

It has been a profound help, and a great relief, to discover my authentic self and allow myself to value what I innately want to value. This doesn't mean that I never care what others think of me - but it does mean I can more easily find my sense of self-worth again anytime I temporarily lose it.

"Still Life Spices" Colored Pencil Drawing

This blog is always about a month (or more) behind "real time." It takes time for me to finish a piece of artwork, photograph it, upload those photos to my computer, add watermarks, upload them to this blog, and write about them. I also tend to schedule posts a couple to a few weeks in advance, so I always know that there's something going up on the blog soon. All of this is to say - though this post is going live in mid-November, I wrote and edited this content in late October, and created the drawing itself even earlier.

September and October were slow art months for me this year. I had grand plans to create several 5"x7" sized drawings with holiday themes, which I would then scan, resize, and print on notecards in time to give to my local community art center (Paint Creek in Rochester, MI) for their 2018 holiday market. Items for the holiday market are due by late October; my art schedule then had these drawings planned for completion in September. But then I got pregnant. And had a miscarriage. And I'll be honest - for several weeks in August, September, and October, I was not in the mood to work on anything creative, let alone festive holiday-themed drawings that were looking forward to the future.

Some people find art therapeutic, but I'm not usually one of those people. (Instead, I often use writing as my therapy-of-choice.) To me, creating art is more a point of pride, a way to produce nice things for other people, and a way to try to make some extra money. I would love to allow myself to experiment more and also create art just for myself, or just for fun - but my time is limited and more often than not I focus on art that I can share, market, and sell. The standards are high, then - it can't just be a hot mess, it has to be well-executed. And when I am depressed, when I'm grieving, when I'm lacking self-confidence, it's really hard to believe I should or can create good artwork. I had the time, but I procrastinated. I had no motivation.

I finally produced one small, simple colored pencil drawing - one of the several designs I had originally planned. I started it sometime in September and finished it in early October. I didn't particularly like the way it turned out (no surprise, really, as my heart wasn't in making it), and I didn't move forward with my plans to make any others. Maybe next year will finally be the year I make a "variety pack" set of holiday notecards; in any case, it is not going to be 2018.

The 5"x7" drawing features two glass mugs of apple cider, complete with cinnamon sticks and apple slices, surrounded by a few red berries, apple slices, and a twine-wrapped bundle of more cinnamon sticks in a make-believe still life arrangement. The atmosphere is undefined, with no clear tabletop or any perspective lines and a few bokeh-style circles in the upper right reminiscent of holiday lights or glitter. I used Prismacolor pencils on toned tan Strathmore paper.

I did at least make holiday cards out of my "White Poinsettia" drawing from a couple years ago - so if you're looking for holiday cards, don't worry, I still got you covered. :) They're available now in packs of ten at the aforementioned PCCA holiday market in downtown Rochester, MI, and will also be featured in my next blog post.

Entitlement

I recently took the time to compile a list of things I'm entitled to - just by virtue of being human - because I thought it would be constructive for me to consciously remind myself of my self-worth and create a list I could refer back to again and again. 

In the past, I have often found it easier to accept that others deserve these things - if anyone else tried to argue that they didn't, I would protest; and yet when I heard the same self-deprecating arguments from myself, I accepted them without question. But I'm trying to make an effort to treat myself just as kindly as I treat others, so if there was something I believed that others deserved, I made sure to include it on my list - because if they deserved it, then so must I.

Some of the things are specific to personal struggles, worded in such a way to target the things I have the most difficulty believing I deserve. Others are more vague and could apply to many different areas of someone's life. Many of them I borrowed verbatim from similar lists I found on the internet, while others were slightly or greatly reworded to better fit my needs. A few I came up with all on my own.

Still, even though this list is somewhat tailored to my own life, this is not just a list of things I deserve, but a list of things everyone deserves. As such, I thought I would share it publicly in case anyone else could also use the reminder.  

These are NOT things that are earned. Whether we're old or young; whether we're rich or poor; whether we're male or female or non-binary; whether we're in a relationship with one person or many people, with someone of a different gender or the same gender, or in no relationship whatsoever; whether or not we score high on tests or accomplish arbitrary goals; whether or not we're able-bodied or traditionally attractive; whether or not we ascribe to a certain religion, or any religion at all - we don't have to do anything or be anything to deserve the unalienable rights I have listed below. 

I am entitled:

• To exist.
• To be shown the same level of kindness and respect that I show others.
• To form my own opinions.
• To share my opinions.
• To not share my opinions.
• To choose what I share with other people.
• To value my privacy.
• To select the people I want to spend time with.
• To avoid the people I don't want to spend time with.
• To cleanse my life of people who don't show me the respect and kindness I deserve.
• To have the amount of connection with my friends and family that is healthy and positive for me.
• To change my opinion about someone, or change how I interact with them, depending on what I need or want, or what I can handle, at any given time.
• To extricate myself from situations that make me uncomfortable.
• To refuse to do things I don't want to do or go places I don't want to go.
• To choose whether or not to forgive someone.
• To desire things.
• To need things.
• To consume things.
• To appreciate things.
• To dislike things.
• To put my needs and desires first.
• To own property and have my property respected by others.
• To allow myself or my possessions to take up physical space in the world - whether at home, in a public place, at my desk at work, in my car on the road, while traveling, etc.
• To drive as I want to drive (in accordance with driving laws).
• To live where I want to live.
• To take up verbal space in the world.
• To speak up if I want to speak up.
• To join a conversation happening near me - or to choose not to join a conversation happening near me.
• To start a conversation.
• To seek out and find people eager to listen to what I have to say.
• To seek out and find people who try to understand me.
• To take up space on social media.
• To post what I want to on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. without worrying that I might be offending or annoying others with the content or frequency of my posts.
• To write what I want to write - in novels, short stories, poems, blog posts, etc. - without worrying that I might make other people uncomfortable, upset, angry, or hurt.
• To eat what I want to eat.
• To turn down offered food - with or without explanation.
• To change my diet requirements/allowances as I see fit.
• To weigh what I weigh.
• To wear what I want to wear.
• To decorate my body as I see fit (including jewelry, hair color/style, tattoos, etc.)
• To use the bathroom when I need to.
• To listen to my body's needs.
• To enjoy and celebrate my body.
• To find myself attractive.
• To find others attractive.
• To enjoy sex.
• To have the sex life I want to have (within consensual relationships).
• To decide when and how many children to have, and to have this decision respected.
• To raise my children as I want to raise them.
• To try new things.
• To not try new things.
• To make mistakes.
• To figure out my own preferences.
• To make my own choices.
• To alter my personal priorities whenever I want.
• To pursue or accept opportunities that I want.
• To turn down opportunities I don't want.
• To not feel pressured or coerced.
• To request adequate time to make an important decision.
• To accept compliments or gifts that others give me, without feeling like I don't deserve them or that I owe them a compliment or gift in return.
• To feel happy.
• To be hopeful or optimistic.
• To feel upset.
• To cry, or to keep crying, or to stop crying, or to not cry at all.
• To tell others how I really feel.
• To not tell others how I really feel.
• To demonstrate emotion without worrying how my emotions might impact others.
• To do things or feel things without justifying my actions or emotions (to myself or to others). 
• To spend time alone.
• To spend time with people who care about me.
• To receive care and understanding when I'm going through a difficult time.
• To ask for help.
• To set my own goals and pursue them as doggedly or lazily as I want.
• To evaluate, revaluate, and change my goals as I see fit.
• To be recognized and respected for my efforts.
• To be fairly compensated for my hard work.
• To define myself as I want to define myself.
• To be my own person.
• To practice self-care, in whatever way I need to at the time.
• To forgive myself.
• To be kind to myself.
• To be proud of myself.
• To love myself.
• To love every part of myself.
• To allow myself to shine.

***

Some of these points I feel require a bit of explanation, to stave off possible arguments for why they shouldn't be included - for example, "I am entitled to feel happy." This doesn't mean that I expect to always be happy - I'm realistic enough to understand that deserving happiness doesn't guarantee I will actually get it. What I mean when I say "I deserve happiness" is that I am allowed to feel happy. I can be happy without feeling guilty or undeserving. And I am allowed to pursue happiness, too - to want to be happy.

The statement "I am entitled to cry, or to keep crying, or to stop crying, or to not cry at all" has similar connotations. I'm saying that I'm allowed to cry, or not cry. I don't have to try to police my feelings or feel guilty for feeling them (or not feeling them). It is not up to anybody else to tell me what I'm allowed to feel, or how I'm allowed to express how I feel. Of course, this doesn't mean that those around me who witness me crying will be comfortable with my display, or that they will support me, and this doesn't mean that I will never face negative consequences for displaying my emotions. I can hope that I will be met with care and understanding more often than not, but I can't guarantee that that will always be the outcome. 

Some of these are things I am in complete control of - being kind to myself, loving myself, making my own choices - and I have no excuse for not ensuring that I achieve those things but the roadblocks I construct for myself. But other points - spending time with people who care about me, having my property and my person respected by others, receiving care and understanding when I'm going through a difficult time - necessarily rely on other people to cooperate with my goals, and to value myself as I am striving to do. Other people will not always be able to fulfill this role for me - and though I'm trying to prioritize generating self-worth, I'm not always able to give myself the things I'm in control over, either.

Just because I am listing out such things as things I deserve, then, doesn't mean that I actually expect to get them 100% of the time. This world is not a fair one, and everybody will not be able to get all of the things they want, let alone the things they need. But there is still value in reminding myself that I deserve these things, even if I don't expect to always get them - because reminding myself that I deserve them encourages me to seek out better relationships and environments if the ones I have are not adequately supporting me, and reminds me not to blame myself when bad things happen in my life, worrying that I deserve what I get.

As for the points about sharing or not sharing my opinions, expressing myself as I want to, and having the opportunity available to me to not offer explanations about my feelings, behaviors, or choices - believing that I'm entitled to do or not do those things as I see fit does not mean I expect no one to comment on them. People have eyes and are allowed to notice or be curious about my choices. They're allowed to take up their own verbal space (just as I am) and voice their contradictory opinions, cast judgments, or try to start a debate with me. But they aren't entitled to anything I don't want to share with them, and if I choose to keep explanations to myself or to not engage with them in conversation, I am entitled to make that choice. People are allowed to ask me questions. But they aren't entitled to hear the answer they want, the answer that is "socially acceptable" or even any answer at all, if I don't want to give one.

The same goes for me. "I am entitled to receiving care and understanding when I'm going through a difficult time" does not mean "I am entitled to receiving care and understanding from this specific person." People can make their own choices about how they interact with me, just as I can make my own choices about how to interact with them. But if I don't like the interaction, and it is not a positive in my life, I am allowed to abandon it. I am allowed to seek out other people who will give me what I need. And others are allowed to get frustrated with me, if my interactions with them are not what they are looking for; they are allowed to look elsewhere for the solutions they need or the answers they want to hear.

People are allowed to form their own opinions about me. I can't control what others think. However, I do not have to listen to someone's negative opinions about me if I don't want to. I can choose whose opinions I agree with or give merit to. I can choose what sort of people I let into my life.

I often care too much about other's opinions, trying to cater to everyone else's emotions or preferences over my own. Even when I can't know how someone really feels, or what someone prefers, I try to guess and cater to what I think they want. This bad habit is what I am trying to combat with the bullet points of taking up physical space in the world, verbal space (speaking up), and space on social media, as well as my statement about being entitled to drive how I want to drive, or use the bathroom when I need to. 

I am allowed to take up physical space - with my body, with my car on the road, and with my property. I am also allowed to speak up and say what I want to say, without worrying what others might think of me. Sometimes I convince myself not to share, even if I secretly want to, because it feels presumptuous to assume that others will want to hear what I have to say. I especially curb what I say or write if I'm worried that it might offend someone. On social media, I worry that if I post a lot, it would be annoying - and I don't want to be annoying. But I am entitled to share what I want to share - both in content and frequency, both in social media and in person. People can decide for themselves if they want to pay attention or engage with what I'm sharing; it is just as presumptuous of me to make that decision for them by choosing not to share something when I want to.

As for driving - I have in the past found myself caring too much about what other drivers on the road might think of me or want me to do. I sometimes feel pressured to drive or turn faster than I want to, just from the presence of a car behind me. They don't have to be tailgating me, they just have to be there. I imagine that they might want to drive faster, or that they are growing impatient with me waiting for an opening to turn, and so I change my behaviors to act more like how I think they want me to act. I even feel bad sometimes if I have a green light at an intersection where several other cars are stopped at a red light; I feel that they deserve a green light more than I do. These bad habits and negative thought patterns - the constant worry of "but what do others want me to do right now?" - are what I'm addressing when I assert "I am entitled to drive how I want to drive." I'm not saying I'm above driving laws and that I can drive however I want; I am saying only that I am entitled to make the little decisions that we all make every time we drive with my own preferences in mind, rather than trying to cater to what I think other's preferences might be. I am allowed to slow down to make a turn, or to wait for the opening that I want before turning or changing lanes. I am allowed to pass someone, or to not pass someone, as I want to. My car is allowed to take up physical space on the road - I don't need to feel guilty going through a green light, just because there are others who want their light to be green right now but don't have one. I am allowed to be there; I am allowed to drive.

I have also been known to worry about what others might think of me if I use the bathroom "too often." I once read a piece (probably on the internet somewhere, but I can't find it now) about how men listen to their body's needs more than women do - if they need to pee, they go to the bathroom; if they're hungry, they get some food and eat; if they're thirsty, they drink some water. It doesn't occur to them to wonder if they might be "allowed" to, or what others might think of them if they do - but even if they did wonder, it wouldn't matter. If their body needs something, they will go for it, because having their needs met is more important than what judgments anyone else might make. 

Now, I'm sure that's a gross generalization - some men will struggle to prioritize their body's needs and instead put other's opinions (or perceived opinions) first. But I do believe, from personal experience if nothing else, that women are probably more likely to fall into this trap. I've seen women refuse to grab themselves a snack even while their stomachs are audibly growling, unless or until they are absolutely sure that they're "allowed" to, that they won't be spoiling their appetites for future meals that might be planned, and that their food eating won't offend anyone who might witness it; when they do finally give in and go into the kitchen, they ask if anyone else wants anything as well. (I am often one of those women myself.) Meanwhile, I've seen men make themselves a snack when someone is in the middle of preparing them dinner - not once stopping to worry if the food preparer might be offended by his apparent impatience, and without asking around to see if anyone else might also be hungry. 

I'm not against the idea of being aware of my surroundings, taking a moment to see if what I'm about to do is appropriate, or trying to anticipate what others might need - but I definitely tend to overdo all of those things, to the point where I deny myself what I need if I think there's even a chance that I might offend or annoy someone, or draw "unwarranted" attention to myself. Yet, I am an adult, I am a human, I am alive. I have needs that have to be met, and if I don't prioritize them, who else will? If I'm hungry, I am allowed to eat. And if I need to use the bathroom, I am entitled to use the bathroom.  

I am allowed to care for myself. I am also allowed to accept help from others. I do not have to feel unworthy if someone does something nice for me. That was their choice, their prerogative. I don't have to feel bad, guilty, or undeserving of unexpected nice gestures, gifts, or compliments - or even just common decency and respect. What's more, I don't owe anything in return to those who choose to give them to me. Other people get to decide what they want (even if that decision is doing something genuinely nice to me), and I get to decide what I want (even if that is rejecting their kindness, or accepting their kindness but rejecting them). I don't owe anybody anything, for any reason.

***

None of those bullet points should be items of contention. No one should have a problem with anyone, regardless of how that person looks or what they do or what family they come from, standing up and saying any one of those points - aloud and assertively. 

But there are people who have a problem with it. 

There are people who insist that only some feelings are valid and that others are unacceptable or inappropriate, especially when demonstrated by specific groups (e.g. masculine men).

There are people who insist on being in charge of other's decisions - people who get bent out of shape when someone deigns to voice an opinion different than theirs, or make choices different than the choices they want the person to make.

There are people who insist that their discomfort seeing something they don't want to see (e.g. a man acting effeminately, or two women getting married, or a breastfeeding mother, or a young person dying their hair blue, or a large person wearing form-fitting fashion) is more important than anyone else's discomfort in not getting to make the choices they want to make for their lives. 

There are people who insist that when a man takes a woman out on a date, she owes him certain favors in return. 

There are people who insist that only some are entitled to fair compensation for their work - and others are not worth even a living wage.

There are people who insist that some people are more entitled to use the bathroom - or at least, certain bathrooms - than others, and people who insist that entire races of people should be denied working public water fountains just because of the color of their skin.

There are people who insist that only those with the money to afford it should be granted the "privilege" of living in the city they want to live in, or receiving medical care during times of physical need, or being allowed to eat when they are hungry. 

There are people who would read my list and snort at me derisively, calling my entire generation "entitled" - as if "entitled" were a bad word. 

As if that list of reminders I've created for myself in an effort to convince myself of their certainty is a pandemic that needs to be cured. 

As if these meager assertions of self-worth have always lived easily and selfishly in my soul, and were not hard-won through years of journaling and contemplation and therapy and internal debate.

As if I need to be reminded instead that I am NOT entitled - that I am less-than, that I am nothing. 

To those people, I reassert: I am entitled. It is not an insult. I'm entitled to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness - same as everyone else.

People who disagree with that assertion tend to agree with the first part of that sentence - "I'm entitled to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness" - as it applies to them. It is the expanding of entitlements to other people that they have a problem with. They think certain groups of people are different than people like them - and entitlements like the ones I listed do not belong to them all.

They do. These entitlements belong to everyone. And these entitlements belong to me.