31 Days of Beauty. 31 Days of Living Art.
There is this blog I've been reading. She thinks we're all artists and when we live we create art (chattingatthesky.com). I like that idea, so I decided that I'm going to live like that. I think I share a lot of her outlook to begin with; it's a lot like how I think everyone is telling a story with their lives. But for some reason thinking of living and making art is intriguing to me, so I'm going to tell a story and create art.
She recently wrote for 31 days about living art. I thought it sounded so interesting, and then I started thinking about what I would write about for 31 days and I couldn't think of a single thing. I was talking with my friend about it, and they dared me to write about beauty for 31 days. And I said "Oh yeah, that would probably be more my kind of thing." But I was terrified. Which means I should probably do it even more now, right?
So here I am. I decided I'm going to combine writing about beauty and/or living art for 31 days. Living art, unveiling beauty, or what I find that's beautiful. Those are the things that will fill up this blog for the next thirty-one days. That's it.
I'm already overwhelmed and nervous...haha
I don't know what I'm going to write about every day. I don't know what beauty will look like tomorrow or the next day or what kind of art I'll create. Maybe I'm just going to ramble for 31 days. I honestly don't know.
I do know that it will challenge me and push me to live with intention. Knowing I'm going to write something that day will make for some good accountability and force me to pay more attention to what I'm learning, what I'm seeing, what is going on around me.
So here's how I lived art today:
Running. I love running, and I don't do it enough. I've lacked motivation lately, despite how much I love it. Recently I've decided that in order to motivate myself I would choose something to run for every time I went to run. People do it all the time: they pay money and run 5k's that have a purpose. So I'm making up my own 5k's and running with a purpose. Today I ran for my family, specifically for my Uncle Darren, Aunt Polly, and cousins Cody and Julia. They've had it really, really rough the past couple of weeks.
My Uncle has basal tongue cancer that metastasized to his throat. He gets radiation every day for 7 weeks, and 1 chemo treatment every 3 weeks. He can't swallow, so he gets fed through a feeding tube in his stomach. His son, Cody, had 2 back surgeries within a week of each other last week, the second one because of complications from the first one. He had to lay flat both times for almost 48 hours. My Aunt stayed with Cody the first surgery while my mom drove Darren to his radiation treatments and stayed with him while Polly was with Cody. Julia helped with Darren. Darren got incredibly sick and had to go to the ER. I was visiting Cody and watched my Aunt Polly talk to my mom on the phone. I could see the weariness in her face as she tried to get updates on her husband while trying to put a smile on her face for her son. She's a nurse, one of my biggest mentors, and I know what it's like to feel the responsibility of trying to fix a family member when they're sick, because you're the nurse. She looked helpless and I felt helpless too. I wanted to help her fix Darren, I wanted to help her fix Cody. I wanted to hug Julia and tell her I'm sorry she's having to watch her family go through this and not be able to fix it either.
So today I ran 3 miles for them. And every time I wanted to stop I thought about how my Uncle can't swallow and has to get fed through a feeding tube, and how he couldn't eat Thanksgiving dinner. I thought about how he's thrown up relentlessly and how miserable he must be. I thought about my Aunt and how she must feel helpless as a nurse, as a wife, that she can't make him better, and how tired she has to be. I thought about Cody laying flat for 48 hours at a time, and how restless he was when I visited him, and how he probably would have given anything to be able to run during those 48 hours. I thought about Julia and how horrible it must be to have to watch her family do this awful dance with illness and stress. I thought about how incredible they all are and how they all love Jesus and have this crazy hope that runs deep through their bones. I thought about how strong they've been and they've taken every blow with as much grace as they can muster up. I love them a lot and I wanted to do something.
I can't cure cancer or operate on backs or take away stress. But I can run, so today I did that. And I did it for Darren, Polly, Cody, and Julia.
She recently wrote for 31 days about living art. I thought it sounded so interesting, and then I started thinking about what I would write about for 31 days and I couldn't think of a single thing. I was talking with my friend about it, and they dared me to write about beauty for 31 days. And I said "Oh yeah, that would probably be more my kind of thing." But I was terrified. Which means I should probably do it even more now, right?
So here I am. I decided I'm going to combine writing about beauty and/or living art for 31 days. Living art, unveiling beauty, or what I find that's beautiful. Those are the things that will fill up this blog for the next thirty-one days. That's it.
I'm already overwhelmed and nervous...haha
I don't know what I'm going to write about every day. I don't know what beauty will look like tomorrow or the next day or what kind of art I'll create. Maybe I'm just going to ramble for 31 days. I honestly don't know.
I do know that it will challenge me and push me to live with intention. Knowing I'm going to write something that day will make for some good accountability and force me to pay more attention to what I'm learning, what I'm seeing, what is going on around me.
So here's how I lived art today:
Running. I love running, and I don't do it enough. I've lacked motivation lately, despite how much I love it. Recently I've decided that in order to motivate myself I would choose something to run for every time I went to run. People do it all the time: they pay money and run 5k's that have a purpose. So I'm making up my own 5k's and running with a purpose. Today I ran for my family, specifically for my Uncle Darren, Aunt Polly, and cousins Cody and Julia. They've had it really, really rough the past couple of weeks.
My Uncle has basal tongue cancer that metastasized to his throat. He gets radiation every day for 7 weeks, and 1 chemo treatment every 3 weeks. He can't swallow, so he gets fed through a feeding tube in his stomach. His son, Cody, had 2 back surgeries within a week of each other last week, the second one because of complications from the first one. He had to lay flat both times for almost 48 hours. My Aunt stayed with Cody the first surgery while my mom drove Darren to his radiation treatments and stayed with him while Polly was with Cody. Julia helped with Darren. Darren got incredibly sick and had to go to the ER. I was visiting Cody and watched my Aunt Polly talk to my mom on the phone. I could see the weariness in her face as she tried to get updates on her husband while trying to put a smile on her face for her son. She's a nurse, one of my biggest mentors, and I know what it's like to feel the responsibility of trying to fix a family member when they're sick, because you're the nurse. She looked helpless and I felt helpless too. I wanted to help her fix Darren, I wanted to help her fix Cody. I wanted to hug Julia and tell her I'm sorry she's having to watch her family go through this and not be able to fix it either.
So today I ran 3 miles for them. And every time I wanted to stop I thought about how my Uncle can't swallow and has to get fed through a feeding tube, and how he couldn't eat Thanksgiving dinner. I thought about how he's thrown up relentlessly and how miserable he must be. I thought about my Aunt and how she must feel helpless as a nurse, as a wife, that she can't make him better, and how tired she has to be. I thought about Cody laying flat for 48 hours at a time, and how restless he was when I visited him, and how he probably would have given anything to be able to run during those 48 hours. I thought about Julia and how horrible it must be to have to watch her family do this awful dance with illness and stress. I thought about how incredible they all are and how they all love Jesus and have this crazy hope that runs deep through their bones. I thought about how strong they've been and they've taken every blow with as much grace as they can muster up. I love them a lot and I wanted to do something.
I can't cure cancer or operate on backs or take away stress. But I can run, so today I did that. And I did it for Darren, Polly, Cody, and Julia.
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