3 weeks: 5 realisations

3 weeks into this year, I’m learning to adapt to this new structure that’s unfolding.

I live by metaphors, they are the framework of all my understanding. The skeleton on which I hang my beliefs and theories.

Since January 1st 2016 I’ve filled one of these 1″ squares each day. They are in a book with enough pages to carry this daily practice over a few years. Will I do that?  I hope to. The project is entitled Self Love 365 and everyone who shares their daily squares has a unique interpretation. I love to see how our days are represented and recorded.

I’m looking at my first 3 weeks of squares and seeing a good degree of haphazardness, conflicting colours, but a bigger pattern is beginning to emerge.

When I drew out the grid I left a little gap between each square – it allowed one week to fit tidily across the width of the page that way, every day has a margin of breathing space. Except I’m scrappy and resistant to constraint by edges. Some days expand and overflow, some are linked by doodled extras.

To begin, I had trouble connecting the project to self love. Now I’m starting to understand. Here are some aspects of kindness I’m extending to myself:

• Scrappy and overflowing are character traits not flaws. Vital in the Yin/ Yang of conformity.
• The few minutes I set aside each day are a meditation, a discipline, a habit. Sometimes it’s easier than others to find the minutes, some days I want to doodle on ahead, but I keep rolling along, one square a day.
• If I can see patterns develop over 3 weeks, undoubtedly I’ll get more insights over the coming months. This is a gift to me in the future.
• Hustling for extra meaning isn’t necessary. It might emerge on its own, it might not. Patience!
• It’s a whole book of unfolding metaphors for me to carry on defining my sense of how things are.

Author: Mixy

artist, thing maker & idea magpie. I am making it all up, one bit at a time. View all posts by Mixy