I’m so excited about this month. February always feels like the turning of a corner. We are making the slow march towards spring and leaving the frigid temperatures of winter behind us. February is also a time when I start to really look at where I stand in the year. We are already one month into 2015 and resolutions are probably waning for most. Maybe some of us haven’t even attempted to embark on those resolutions. I am in the most confusing of positions. I couldn’t decide on a resolution. I had too many ideas floating around in my busy head. I wanted to write more. I wanted to exercise more. I wanted to simplify my life, streamline, explore minimalism. Ali Edwards has a One Little Word program that she runs where you focus on one word for the entire year. Couldn’t decide what I wanted my word to be. Do you see a pattern here? I have trouble making decisions (classic Pisces-two fish swimming in opposite directions).
Then something amazing happened. On a cold, snowy Sunday I stumbled upon a blog. Janice MacLeod. Janice is an artist, a writer, an explorer, a traveler, but also a girl, just like me, looking for her passion. She started a blog in 2010 in the hopes of documenting her ability to do 365 days of Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages from her wildly popular book, The Artist’s Way. Essentially, Janice wanted to change her life. The Morning Pages became a focal point and a way to channel her creative energy. What resulted is astounding. Janice quit her job, sold her belongings and traveled to France, looking for adventures. She blogged her way through everything and started writing letters and painting images of her travels to her friends and family back home. The blog took off and her creativity blossomed. She ended up writing Paris Letters: One Woman’s Journey from the Fast Lane to a Slow Stroll in Paris. The rest, as they say, is history. What fascinates me is that all of this was the result of pursuing her passion and dedicating herself to change. She ended her first post with these words, “I’m like a horse at the gate. Excited. Nervous. I’m also frothing at the mouth. Game on.”
As I continued to read on about Janice, I found that she, too, was inspired by another artist, Percy Kelly, who sent letters to a friend. Letters that were illustrated and told a story. It’s amazing to actually watch someone’s dreams begin to take shape, and this is what Janice’s blog showed. She hated her job. Hated the work she was doing. She wasn’t inspired. She needed to breathe some energy into her life and she did it in small, creative steps. Steps that resulted in a book that has hit the New York Times Bestseller list! All because she started thinking creatively and looking for inspiration everywhere. Now she is the one doing the inspiring.
I immediately had to get my hands on a copy of her book. I’m right around the age Janice was when she started her blog. I have a one-year-old son who is my everything. I want to show him what a good, happy, inspired life looks like and I think I might have found the way. Writing has always been my passion but I hide it behind press releases for other people, other writers, other creative minds. I write about their lives, their work, their passions. But what about mine?
The fact that I have just written more in the past few minutes then I have all year shows that I am excited. I’m inspired. I’m motivated. I want to see what happens to my life if I begin to follow my passion. I’m going to do what Janice did. I’m using her as my inspiration. I will start doing morning pages every single day. I want to see if the creativity will be sparked. I want to blog every. single. day. Even if it’s just one word. One picture. One thought. I want to check in here, with my thoughts, every single day. The morning pages will be used to spark my creativity, get my creative juices flowing. Like Janice, I, too, want to explore my creative side. I’ve been a scrapbooker for years. I document my daily life with words and photos in albums that no one sees. I want this blog to become a bit like my scrapbook. A place in this wide world where I can be creative and discover new facets of myself.
I have found a journal that I will use for my morning pages. I don’t know how different it will be then my diary, which I keep on a daily basis, but we shall see. I’m already 39 days into 2015 but as anyone will tell you, now is as good a day as any to start. So I will do 365 days of morning pages. 365 days of blogging. Today is Day One. Yes, this space will hold me accountable. I’ve made this proclamation before. I didn’t stick to it. Yes, it’s embarrassing. So here’s hoping that on February 8, 2016, I will have 365 posts to back me up.
As Janice said, “GAME ON!”
If you, too, are looking for inspiration, check out Janice’s book and blog. You will not be disappointed. Her artwork is stunning and her words are inspiring.
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