Motivational

Here I am with my DT project for the new challenge over at the Alphabet challenge blog. We'd like to see "Motivational" creations from you, anything with an uplifting message and/or a positive interpretation of what you link up. When in doubt, feel free to tell us how and why your project is meant to inspire and motivate.

I'm showing you a page from my art journal. It was my first attempt at journalling and I thought it would help me to organize my thoughts through premature menopause.

I must admit the journal now sits half empty on my shelf as I don't know what to do with it as I'm currently working on another art journal. Anyway, back then I decided to use a quote that resonated with me as I believed it would allow my thoughts to concentrate on what is yet to come rather than waste energy on what is a done deal. I printed the sentiment on a structured paper and framed it with a pink paper. 

I then embellished said paper with a heart border punch. 

After that, I picked a patterned paper with cherry blossoms, and combined it with another shade of pink for the background. On the album page, I placed a paper with a handwriting pattern. Once I positioned all those elements, I embellished the border punch with a couple of tiny pearls. I then added a couple of silver stickers that represent both transience and (self)love. 

At that point, I thought I was finally at peace with myself, content with my past and what I had become. Turns out a pile of other things came along, and my thoughts keep coming back to what happened, what could/should have happened differently, and what I could have done in the scenario. I keep coming to the conclusion that no wisdom in the world will help when your counterpart is absolutely not willing to hear you. How a situation like this can happen in the first place is a mistery to me, but it keeps bugging me nevertheless. 

Turns out I haven't yet reached the point of getting over, mainly because I'm not the person who believes in forced apologies and fake forgiveness when you're not ready to draw the line yet. On the contrary, I think that if you force yourself to close a chapter before you're ready to do so, it will not bring satisfaction on the long term because the issue will keep coming back. Because moving on is not a switch in your brain, but rather a process of approaching the issue and finding a way to deal with it. And it's quite difficult to do so when you're bullied into silence. 

Oh well. Maybe you've already found a way to make peace with your demons, and if not, I wish you all the best in doing so. I for myself still like the sentiment and it still resonates with me, it just comes with a different vibe now. And that's fine with me - even if you read the same book on multiple occasions, it will speak to you in a different way each time. 

That being said, I'm still looking for a balance between being stuck and moving on. But then again, maybe that's the motivation for the moment, before I'll be able to start letting go. 

challenges:

- 613 avenue create: ATG with optional twist "think pink"

- a place to start: ATG

- allsorts challengeblog: ATG

- C.R.A.F.T.: ATG

- card free zone: ATG but a card

- classicdesignchallenge: ATG DT 

- crafty catz: ATG

- crafty gals corner: ATG

- dream valley: ATG

- fabnfunky: 3 of something (3 silver heart stickers)

- little red wagon: frame it

- lovethoseprettypapers: ATG patterned papers

- wortartwednesday: ATG