It's a PERFECT day to...

SHARE.

It's time.
Time to dive into the heart and the thought and the action behind using one little word to inspire my days and open my heart.
You may remember I wrote about using one word (read it here ) to excavate meaning and push me to goodness in my daily and yearly life.
To me, this idea functions on the belief that we have many, many opportunities to start our lives over in a single day.  To make it better.  To make it good.  To give it a go again with renewed gusto! 
Choosing one word anchors us to our good life.  We all know how simple it is to get stuck in the rut of  negativity and self doubt.  This activity helps keep our eyes on the good.

This past year, in honour of my chosen word light,  I subjected myself to some steep challenges in order to help myself lighten up.  To be light.  Spread light.  Connect to the light in the world and in myself.

I gave up alcohol and coffee (well, to be specific, I gave up caffeine--I still drink decaf coffee and every so often I slip and drink a full pull caffeinated brew).
I thought about giving up dairy--for health and ethical reasons, but that's been hard.
I gave up on ego too.  As best as I could anyway.  I mean, I'm no guru and I don't think I ever will be, but through this process I feel am more connected to my higher self and relying on my intuition and observer self more by using meditation and loving personal (self) talk to help me navigate my life with love and patience.

I have lightened up and it's been a great year.   I feel great.  I feel happy.

Lately I have been pulled to the word share.  You can read a post I wrote about it in the above link.

Usually the one little word phenomenon begins at the beginning of the calendar year.  However, I'm starting mine now, to get my feet wet and feel it out because my personal year is about to start.  I'm a Sagittarius, so in around one month it will be my birthday (yay!) and I thought that getting started on using my new word would be a great way to lead into my new personal year.  After all, this is the time where I should be committing to culminate a plan for my new year's intentions and desires.

So!

In order to make the new word and my desires go hand in hand, I am hereby committing to SHARING a daily piece of art here on this blog as well as on my Facebook page and my instagram profile for the next month.  From today to December 4th, which is one day after my birthday, I will post a piece of artwork that I have created.  The pieces will be a mix of work that I will create this month and stuff I've already made and haven't shared properly.  The pieces will be a mix of all the styles I feel comfortable with: paint, script, ink, illustration, digital design, photography, writing.  Some of the pieces will be for sale and some won't.  Some will go on sale later and some may never be for sale.

The idea behind this challenge is to get out of my own way and keep putting my work (and myself) into the world.   I am forever doing something creative: doodling while on the phone, photographing while on a walk, writing poems in my head, etc.  It is time these things saw the light of day! I need to force myself to quit waiting until something is completely perfect before I share it, because it will never be perfect! But it is all very good and lovely and I must share that with the world.  Plus, it is my goal to be a working artist.  This is how I figure I can get that energy rolling.

I am declaring this challenge publicly in the hopes that someone will take notice and call me out when I slip.  I should be able to manage it as I have created a schedule of what art to share for each day, but I may get busy and forget, so I hope someone will take note if I do and say hey! get back up on that horse lady!

Ok, so, for today, the above graphic is what I have to share.  It is called "A perfect day to love." and it was created with the simple thought that each day we can choose to love or to leave.  We can choose hard (to love) or easy (to leave) but if we choose the path that seems easy, we may have to go back and do it again, so really, any day is the perfect day to choose love.  I think it's a simple and beautiful thought and idea expressed in a simple and beautiful illustration.
It was created by scanning two separate pen drawings I made into my computer and then working them up in Photoshop using the paint bucket, paintbrush and text tool.  This is one of my new favourite ways to create art these days.  I love the simple versatility of illustrations and Photoshop.  They are delicious to me!

Hey, thanks for reading along.  Come back tomorrow for share #2.