I was listening to a talk by artist Charlie Mackesy on abandoning “the idea of being good and just try”

In his talk, he recalled a story of volunteering to teach a group of elderly people who live with alzheimer’s to draw. In the beginning of the drawing process a number of them were not sure about drawing as they were not good at it in school – they did enjoy drawing though.

He then asked them the question do you enjoy the process? they said yes, we enjoy the process. So the brave drawing process started, but it was not without bumps. One of the difficult moments happened when one of the students had a memory lapse and forgot who his drawing friends were. The beautiful thing that followed was that the other students kindly helped their fellow student through this bump together.  Overall, during this process -human connections and some fun and interesting drawings were forged.

Overall,this beautiful and short life calls us to take up a joyful and possibly messy experience. In my case it is this blog. I am not always the kindest person or eats all of my veg, but I try to be a better human being everyday even when it can get messy in the short term.

So, how to choose a joyful and messy experience especially if it boosts your wellbeing:

1. Reflect over what brought you joy earlier in your life, but you decided to forget, because you did not have the time or pass grade to continue.
2. Choose one area to start with e.g drawing or making salads. Activities which you can share, show or gift others.
3. Practice your craft through joining a virtual class (covid times)
4. Block out time in your diary for this activity – make the commitment.

Every good thing takes effort. Count the cost and just try…

One life- live it kinder.

Char x