It was another day when the stuff I felt I needed to get done was longer than the hours I had to complete it.
It was both Monday and Valentine's Day: I didn't give any thought to the cultural norms associated with either Mondays or this fourteenth day of February, I just rolled up my sleeves and dove into my day weaving writing and poetry and networking and marketing my personal development business into the fabric of the moments as they flowed past me. I was feeling pretty good about my progress when I got a creative nudge to go outside. The nudge wanted me to take my sketch book and visit one of my favorite neighborhood trees which was on the verge of blooming. The vroom vroom vroom productivity junkie in me stammered and stomped her foot but the wiser, "Don't push, listen and let go," me followed the flow out of my front door and up, three doors away from my home. There are several neighborhood trees I adore. This home at the corner of Alta Vista and La Cresta is host to two of them. It is a tulip magnolia tree and as winter drones on in much of the US, it is around Valentine's Day that this tree begins to flower. It says, "Spring isn't far away. Stay present to my blossoms and know warmth is near." I can write of the tulip magnolia tree, but the call to sketch its budding was something entirely different. I can not draw. I can not sketch. I don't know how to draw or sketch. These capabilities are not within my skillset. I can teach, I can perform, I can not sketch. I can not draw. Yet the call came and I was not going to waste time getting stuck in my "I can't, I don't have... " yada yada yada diatribe. I picked up my pencil, my sketchpad and off I went. I grabbed my camera, too, just in case my record with my pencil was lacking. I knew last year it was in the weeks around Valentine's Day this tree the blossoms burst out laughing, spewing pink petals into the air, onto the ground and thankfully for me, onto the set of last year's "First Kisses." I have already proclaimed my appreciation for the Tulip Magnolia tree, but until yesterday, I wouldn't say we were "close friends" I would say we were, instead, "close acquaintences." Yesterday I stood, notebook in hand, and sketched one of her buds. I was surprised at the result, actually, and realized it came when I shut off the harangue of "I can't, I don't have, I am not..." and just let my pencil do the "talking" instead.
Here is my sketch, with labels and this is the model.
My drawing isn't perfect, but it isn't bad.
This entire experience took me about 30 minutes from start to finish, including the uploading of the photos. The trip to the tree, the sketching and the additional time listening to the birds and writing poetic insights from the birds and the tree which I haven't even begun to process. That is a delectable bonus which will come soon.
Sharing with you took, perhaps, another 30 to 45 minutes. I may tinker with the blog post still just because that is what I do.
I took a break from my relentless to-do's and came back refreshed. I came back with a newly polished confidence. My drawing of what I see isn't horrid.
I can take that letting go of "I can't, I don't know how..." and inject it into my business building, my networking, my outreach work and into my creative life via life coaching, acting, fiction writing.
Do you see how honoring this one quiet nudge has made my life, and now yours, that much richer?
Listen to the nudges cheering alongside your to-do list. Scoop one up and follow its lead for 15 or so minutes so you will come back to your tasks replenished and re-invigorated.
You will be grateful you did.
Activate Your Passion.
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