Illustration from my book A Milkweed Christmas – Sweetbrier Sett
WARNING! MISH-MASHY CONTENT!
Last Thursday I called in sick to my regular life. That was the beginning of four days in my pajamas either lying on the sofa or in my bed. I don’t know what had me in its grip, but it held me tight. I made a few noble efforts to get up and do something, but they didn’t work. Neither time did I make it more than fifteen minutes. After that, I didn’t try any more.
This happens to all of us from time to time, and we get through it as best we can. I indulged in a lot of worry. I’m creating an on-line class for a lovely woman who has an on-line art school. (I have to keep it secret for now, though, so I can’t reveal the school or the subject of the class.) The deadline is looming, but I had been doing OK because I had my schedule all planned out. But now what? At least five days are now lost.
A couple of times, as a break from worrying, I reviewed all—or at least as many as I could think of—of my past mistakes. That, however, wasn’t helpful in any way, so I searched for something else to think about, something that might be productive.
I decided to make a list of changes that would improve my life. I just kept the list in my mind because I didn’t have the energy to write anything. I came up with about ten items for the list, things like “have a regular routine for working in the garden,” “have some protein at breakfast,” "stop playing solitaire," “read,” and so on. I thought that when I got my energy back, I could make a chart. For each change, I could add how, specifically, the change would improve my life, a ranking for how much effort it would take to make the change, a ranking for how impactful the change would be, and a ranking for how likely I was to actually make the change.
But one thing jumped right out at me. With the exception of only one of the ten items, each was totally within my control to accomplish! So why hadn’t I already made those changes? Did the fact that I hadn’t mean that I never would? At that point, the exercise revealed that I'd uncovered yet another esample of how we humans are so skillful at resisting changes that would be beneficial!
Well, that was depressing!
Then, out of the blue, inspiration came.
But before I explain, a little background. I’ve thought it would be interesting to try writing and illustrating something I at first thought of as “mini stories.” Then, I thought “vignettes” might be a better description. Then the leader of my author’s group suggested that what I was contemplating is, in fact, referred to as “slice of life.”
In any case, my pieces would be a small amount of text—probably no more than 500 words—and an illustration. Neither the writing nor the art would dominate the other. They’d have equal creative importance. I already had written four of these short pieces, but so far, hadn’t illustrated any of them.
My inspiration was another vignette, which I share with you here. Please keep in mind that this is just a draft! Here goes:
Father enjoyed his Sunday afternoon walks with the girls for so many reasons, but he especially appreciated having a quiet time with their full attention in which to impart words of wisdom. The teaching for today was rather short, but oh, so important. He hoped it would find homes in their hearts.
“Cast aside judgment and condemnation,
But Nurture Gentleness and Humility.
Rejoice in the beauty of God’s creation
And put your trust in the Lord.”
His words did settle in the girls’ hearts, for as soon as they returned to their burrow, Parsleigh wrote them out in her very best cursive writing on one of her very best sheets of paper.
Mother fastened the paper to the wall above their bed and read the words slowly and reverently. Then, in her and-that’s-that voice, declared, “There’s truth in those words!”
“Amen,” murmured Parsleigh.
“Amen,” Persimmon whispered, earnestly nodding her little head.
I can picture two illustrations—one showing the walk and the other showing the paper hanging above the girl’s beds. By the way, the characters are mice. No surprise there! I’m looking forward to working further on these pieces once I’ve regained some traction on my project with deadlines!
Last night I was thinking that the best I’d be able to do with this week’s blog would just be the illustration of the poor, sick badger and the notice that I was calling in sick. But this morning, I’m beginning to feel better, so you got all of this babbling! Thanks for listening…
P.S. Surely I can give up Solitaire!
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