Our 2020 Was Topsy Turvy!

Hi Creative Souls,

Our 2020 was Topsy Turvy!

But we can change that feeling, that story of how we see it! 

We might not be ready to change how we see 2020 because we live in this upside-down world. Think about it though, at some point, the pandemic and the Coronavirus stories will be written in our history books. I wonder how the story about the Coronavirus will be reported. 

How are you going to tell your story about Covid 19? As a Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Mystery, Drama, Comedy, Nonfiction? What is your spin on the story? 

Eric Rhodes, (founder and publisher of PleinAir Magazine) talked about stories in his last newsletter. He mentioned that he remembers how his grandparents told him stories of their experiences of historical wars – World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Iraq War. Can you imagine what those tales were like? The Coronavirus, the pandemic, will be one of those history stories we will tell our grandchildren and future generations. 

We are already telling stories. I know I am. Like how it has affected me or the lessons I have learned as I reflect back on 2020. I trusted our government and the news agencies for what to do with Covid 19. What was true? What was false? It is more transparent to me how I didn’t choose to live in fear or anger about the pandemic, about Coronavirus. I decided not to go to the drama train and instead jumped to doing art right away. I choose to look for lessons I learned in how I could still remain passionately, expressing myself, and pivoting my life into something even more extraordinary. 

If you were to write your topsy turvy 2020 story, what would you say? How did it treat you?

What lessons, if any, did you learn?

What success did you achieve? 

So this brings me to my Paint Your Essence next year theme. WHAT STORIES AM I TELLING MYSELF? We are going to look at our stories. You get to pick what story or a belief you want to look at. I will select the genre we will use to paint the tale. 

For example, January is FANTASY. What if you are working on the belief you are unloveable. You might see it as feeling like you don’t have any friends, feel so alone, or people stay away from you. 

What is your fantasy about that?

What does this story look like?

Is that true? And Is that the fantasy part? How will you think of this story differently? 

What will you do differently with this tale? 

I want this to be an opportunity for us to see how “truth” could possibly be a lie. I want to allow us to change this belief around our perceived truth. So, you might get it in the first month and paint something different the next month. Or you can use this unloveable theme for a few months until you really, really get it in your bones that it is not valid. 

We can change that feeling, that story of how we see it by painting about it. 

I invite you to come, play and have fun peeling away from your stories until you have a more honest and truthful account of them. 

See you on the other side of the canvas in 2021! 

~ Karen