Archives for Calming

Honouring the small actions

June 4, 2020 | Comments Off

On this April morning I am sitting in my living room watching the swallows make their nest under the eaves of the house across the road. They fly back and forth with bits of this and that to construct their home. So many journeys and so many pieces of debris are brought together to create something new. I am reminded of all the small things we do on a daily basis that we so easily dismiss or belittle by thinking that they are not important, that they don’t really matter, that they are not big enough. Yet it is all
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Rainbow Feeds

April 26, 2020 | Comments Off

When we take notice of our surrounding, what beauty there is! Take time with a camera to notice all the colours of the rainbow that surround you. You could choose to do this in nature and outdoors or to explore the colours around you at home; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink and the shades in between. Our social media feeds get full of such a mix of stuff… interesting, depressing, helpful, distracting and beautiful! I thought it would be refreshing to fill feeds with rainbows of the beauty around us by taking pictures of all the colours from
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Nurturing Children’s Creativity

April 1, 2020 | Comments Off

When schools closed recently, I got asked three times in one day how to make slime😜. It got me thinking that parents might need some creative ideas to do with their children over the next few weeks. As a practicing artist, I know the benefit of escaping to a creative space when I need to block out the real world for just a little while. With this in mind, I decided to set up a closed Facebook group for parents to help nurture their child’s creativity. It is my hope that the parents who follow along might try to take
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Sense Aesthetic

March 29, 2020 | Comments Off

Mark Ewart Openness to finding comfort in unexpected places, is something that we should welcome into our lives right now. Not as an antidote to the ‘boredom’ that broadcast media feels bound to protect us from, but instead, a quiet, dignified appreciation, for what immediately surrounds us within our confinement. Of course, the irony is that most of us are still too busy to be bored anyway – and I include those doing essential and highly valued work in the community, as well as those who have sadly lost their jobs and are now occupied by worry and stress, upon
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Time to be slow

March 26, 2020 | Comments Off

This is the time to be slow, Lie low to the wall Until the bitter weather passes. Try, as best you can, not to let The wire brush of doubt Scrape from your heart All sense of yourself And your hesitant light. If you remain generous, Time will come good; And you will find your feet Again on fresh pastures of promise, Where the air will be kind And blushed with beginning. ― John O’Donohue To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings
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Self Isolation Creations

March 20, 2020 | Comments Off

What has surprised me over the last few days is how sharply and quickly isolation can set in. Despite our multiple means of communication, much of our deepest fears and anxieties are not finding pathway to expression. A few days ago I started feeling a bit powerless and wondered how I could help others feeling this way. So I started creating exercises for myself each afternoon that help me to reconnect and give me something creative to do that would stop me worrying. I’m now posting these 20 minute ‘self-isolation creations’ every day on my Instagram and Facebook pages: Lucy
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