Life, Lately

I should really be updating more now that the blog has been cleaned up!

I keep realizing too that I mean to write up posts and forget entirely.  We were in Mexico a little while ago – I could write about that.  I completed the third year of the Vitality Awards for the Downtown Calgary Association – I should definitely share that!  And I wanted to write about my newest cycling adventures.  But instead today, I’ll just show off a few sketches I’ve done lately.

My work allows me an extra Monday off every two weeks.  I really really love those Mondays off.  I’ve been working on a resolution since the beginning of the year to start drawing on site a little more, and it’s finally starting to happen.  I’m finding too when it really feels like time is getting away from me, and the day is a blur of commitments that I wish I could just maybe step back from, taking a few minutes to sit and sketch makes me feel a whole lot better.

I took my bike out earlier this month and settled on a sidewalk in Signal Hill to sketch the first house that grabbed me.  A few older folks passed me while out for their daily round.  One older man took a look at my bike on the lawn, and me sitting cross legged on the ground with a sketchbook and commented about missing the days of homework.  I thought it was cute.  I don’t think I look like I’m still in school, but I’ll take it!

Then the next Monday I was driving through Kensington, saw this cute little corner house and abruptly pulled the car over.  Just like that!  It was about 11AM.  I had all my stuff with me for sketching and painting.  Once again, I found myself a little corner of grass in the shade, sat down and started drawing.  I was passed by a few people again, and one or two commented.  One guy said I must have everything figured out, being able to sit under a tree and draw in the middle of a Monday.  In a way, I get it.  No, I don’t have everything figured out, far from it.  But, it’s the middle of the day, in the middle of a random place, and I have stopped and dropped to do something I love, something I want to be better at.  Not everyone takes the time to do that sort of thing for themselves.

I’ve been a lot more reflective since losing my mom, about the passing of time, about what I want out of life.  I also recently had the opportunity to read J.K. Rowling’s address to the Harvard graduating class of 2008 – in which she quoted Seneca – “As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”

It’s a good one, huh?  Time is so funny.  Sometimes you can be so bored by life, which is terrible.  I think a lot about the free time I have now, that it won’t always be the case.  What will life be like when I’ve got little humans running around who I want to nurture, to see grow to their fullest potential.  Making and taking the time right now to work on what I want to leave behind – that’s important.