💕🍡🌸🍬💕🍡🌸🍬 create > consume 💕🍡🌸🍬💕🍡🌸🍬

💕🍡🌸🍬💕🍡🌸🍬 create > consume 💕🍡🌸🍬💕🍡🌸🍬

Happy August<3

here's a lil animation made with some rainbow beads and butterfly charms last week.

~*~*

consumption is necessary to life and a legitimate means of growth (taking in food, different perspectives, etc. allows us to become healthier humans). yet, sometimes as creatives, particularly on social media, we can take in so many different outside voices, ideas, imagery, beliefs, and expectations that it can become overwhelming.

i've been realizing as i endlessly scroll through instagram, that although i can become so easily inspired and in awe of the beautiful things that i see (and wanting to create something like others have made), i've also started to become paralyzed by the sheer breadth of information online, and the amount of things that i keep adding onto my goals and to-do lists of projects.

i'd been feeling the need to lessen my presence online, and to learn to experience presence (and be present) in real life.

taking the time to step away from absorbing all of the outside noise, and creating something small, even imperfect was so life-giving and healing for me, for the pure joy of bringing something temporary, but beautiful and fun into the world.

whether you are creating a watercolor illustration, a vision for your life dreams, a culture of encouragement around you, a healthy meal, a beautiful song, or a team of peers that uplift one another, i hope that whatever you create today makes you feel inspired and brings you a moment of joy.<3

(For more of these ideas, I also recommend and give credit to some of my favorite authors and books - I just liked this saying and wanted to make something out of it, but these ideas overlap in books that I've read over the years - Julia Cameron's "media deprivation" assignment in her book, The Artist's Way, speaks on an exercise eliminating television for creative clarity; Cal Newport, in his book, Digital Minimalism gives in-depth research and case studies on technology and smart phones and rising levels anxiety; and the Minimalists, in their blog, include an argument on creating more than consuming in an age of marketing and corporate advertising).

Don't Quit Your Daydream

today’s message for anyone and everyone: Don’t Quit Your Daydream

as this current winter ends and our new spring season begins, i’m making it a point to cherish, honor, nurture, and value my childhood dreams and visions by scheduling dedicated time to work on them each week and give them thoughtful attention.

i believe that the childhood dreams, and the visions that we have for our lives, are so precious and valuable—that they are oftentimes given to us my God, and that they have innate beautiful purposes. if not solely to bring personal joy and fulfillment to us alone, or to naturally increase mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellness, the act of following our dreams (and pursuing those things that we loved doing as children) enable us to practice and reinforce the truths that our own (and every individual’s) thoughts, experiences, feelings, ideas, and passions matter and are important.

by taking consistent baby steps to follow our dreams, we discover and learn new things about ourselves and others, and can inspire and encourage those around us to realize and believe that their own dreams matter and are worth investing in and treasuring, too.

i love that each human is gifted with unique talents, gifts, passions, life experiences, and cultural complexities. oftentimes, these creative acts and causes that we are so naturally skilled at, inherently compelled to do, or that are so close to our hearts and minds, are those very things that God uses to guide and equip us to bringing beauty and truth to the people and spaces that we are in.

as outside responsibilities, daily tasks of living, and unexpected circumstances will realistically always require tending, i want to also carve out essential spaces of time and attention to nurture and value these inner dreams, too.