Never Stop.

Love what you do; do what you love.
~Wayne W. Dyer

To my dearest friends and followers,

If there is one thing I hope you take away from this post, it is this: never stop doing what you love.

As most of you are probably aware, and as I said in last week's post, I hadn't been doing much last year in the way of being creative. I hadn't blogged, read, drawn anything, written much, or made anything. Since I started blogging again a few weeks ago, I feel so much better. It's like saying hello to an old friend. Missing something I love and finding it again feels really good. I feel like I've been able to be more creative, to share my art with you. I feel like I have the time to do that now - now that I'm married, now that I'm here.

In 2018 I was working a lot. I was working on my long-distance relationship. I was sleeping little. I wasn't eating well. I was tired. 2018 truly was the best of times and the worst of times. I was so blessed to live near the ocean, to live in a small community, to be surrounded by people I considered my family. I got engaged on the beach, I got married at the beach. I found a lot of hurt and a lot of hard times, but also so many wonderful memories. Here's the thing: in 2018 I also never really stopped being creative. I just didn't realize it until now.

I was writing letters all year to my love. XD
Of course we talked on the phone and Skype, but I'm a romantic. There's something special about an old-fashioned hand written letter. It holds more meaning than the words spoken through technology. I don't save every typed message or cherish the words spoken, but those written words on paper hold so much meaning (he wrote me too). That's the thing I'm never going to forget. I put so much of myself into those letters. I spoke my thoughts I couldn't find the words to say when we sat in front of our computers. And they were beautiful.

Were you ever that kid to doodle in a textbook or in a notebook when you were probably supposed to be studying? I was. I doodled everywhere. And I didn't stop last year either. I just did it in the letters I sent him. And on the box I mailed to him. I doodled in my journal too. They're easy to forget though. It didn't feel like I was really drawing or doing anything creative. I was though. Even when my brain was like, "I want to draw, I don't have time to do anything," I was subconsciously filling up the page with lines and swirls and making something.

A typical page in my journal looks a lot like my blog page today. Designs and patterns everywhere. People. Fairies. Animals. Dogs. Birds. Quotes from people I like, or quotes I like. Writing what's on my mind, what I like to share with others and what I hope they never see.
If you love doing something, if you are passionate about something, if you glorify God through it, and bring a bit of happiness to yourself and others by doing so, why should you ever stop? Why would you ever stop? You shouldn't. And you should be conscious of it. Even if you aren't doing what you want to the extent that you expected to, do it anyway and be content in that. It doesn't have to be a big project, it can be something so small. It doesn't have to be something that everyone else sees or knows about. You don't have to do it for them anyways. Do it for you. And do it as often as you can. Make the time.
As for me, I never want to stop. I want to always create. I want to always do what I love. To write. To draw. To be me. And to let that part of me be free. Free to create. Free to feel alive. 

"To be alive is the strange and wonderful miracle we forget."

~Atticus

What makes you feel alive?
If there is one thing I hope you take away from this post, it is this: never stop doing what you love. Never stop.

Yours truly,
Me