FULL OF IDEAS

The Letter G, one of three completed pages from my newest ABCEDarian

"It's in the Bekins" has become a weekly phrase we utter when we can't find something. We hadn't planned to spend a year living in different places after we sold our home. We thought a few short months would give us ideas of places to live (and it helped us eliminate some) and a house to move into. We packed up most of our belongings into Bekins storage vaults.

Now that winter has set in with its chilly mornings and grey skies, we ask, "Where's that warm sweater? I only brought two shirts and a couple of pairs of pants. The rest is "in the Bekins."

"Mixing bowls, measuring cups, kitchen scissors, and knives? They're in the Bekins."

"Where are my rulers, stapler, photo storage and shredder, punches, and craft papers? In the Bekins," we both exclaim.

Tempting to buy new replacements, but then what would we do with the new ones when all the stuff "in the Bekins" is delivered to whatever place we find to live? Twice as much as before and we were trying to downsize? We have to laugh at ourselves, which is not "in the Bekins."

At the beginning of the year, many artists and writers put down their thoughts about the coming year. Some people pick a word to live by for the year, and others make resolutions. I've already added and canceled an exercise app realizing that I had little time to add other routines to my morning stretches in January (we are on the move from one apartment to another this month). The app suggested fasting to lose weight. I decided to postpone any changes till February and deleted the app after reading their food suggestions. At least the app made me think about my daily meals. I've decided that my word for 2024 is Unfinished.

For the last couple of weeks, I've returned to the ABCEDarian sketchbook that I started in a calligraphy class last February (full circle: maybe my year needs to start in February). The art journal is divided into two-page spreads for each letter of the alphabet. It is unfinished. I like to make alphabet books, but this book has taken more time because I have tried to stay with words that inspire me to make art. The letter J had me stumped. Journal is the obvious answer, but what after that? I wrote down J words: Jump, Japan, Jazzy, Joy, Jumpstart, and January. Phew, just a few. I thought of that process like bubbles rising from a bubble blower with some of the ideas growing, some of them popping as soon as released, others gathering together into clusters as they rise above me. I kept the pages for the letter J simple with copies of pages from other sketchbooks and an illustration of those bubbles rising. Now I can turn the page to start on another letter.

Unfinished still.

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A good post to read to start your new year. Check out Literally Letty here:

https://literallyletty.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-birthday-challenge-what-will-you-do.html