Glow by Lady E

  I have a habit of trying to solve my entire life in one sitting. It usually starts innocently enough. I’ll sit down because there’s one thing bothering me. Maybe it’s work. Money. Something at home. Something I want to make. Something I haven’t finished. Something about myself that I think I should already understand. So I start thinking. And then I think about the thing connected to that thing. And the thing that might happen three months from now because of that thing. And while I’m there, perhaps I should also figure out what I’m doing for the rest of the year. Very efficient. Except it isn’t. Sometimes I’m already tired when I begin. That’s the strange part. I can be overwhelmed, underslept, emotionally wrung out, with too many things already competing for space in my head, and some part of me will still decide that this is an excellent time to develop a comprehensive strategy for my entire existence. I think I do it because figuring things out makes me feel safer. (And also...

  There are days when I paint strawberries. Not because I need a strawberry illustration. Not because I have a product in mind. Not because I am developing a collection, creating content, testing a concept, or planning to sell anything afterward. Sometimes I paint strawberries because I want to see if I can paint them differently each time. Sometimes I put blobs of paint on the paper and let the blobs determine the strawberry’s shape.  And sometimes that is enough. I think we have become far too practiced at asking what everything is for . What will this become? Can I monetize it? Can I post it? Can I turn it into content? Can I sell it? Can I teach it? Can I build something around it? Even joy has somehow acquired a business plan. A hobby cannot simply be a hobby anymore. It has to become a side hustle. A quiet afternoon becomes a content opportunity. A new skill becomes something we should master. A beautiful moment becomes something we instinctively reach for our phones to ...