Spring

I don’t know where you are, but it’s March—and here in France spring is looking pretty good. I apologize if you’re in a cold climate, where I often am this time of year, and your spring seems very far away as you walk through the snow, slush or rain. But wherever you are, I promise you, spring will come.

It’s interesting how the planet is built—there are these seasons, these cycles of hot and cold, rain and drought and everything in-between. And there’s absolutely nothing we can do about changing those seasons. But there is one thing that will help as we endure them—be prepared. Wear coats in winter, carry an umbrella when rain is forecast…and do what we need to in order to get through the less attractive seasons. But it’s comforting to know that a cycle is just that, and if you get through the less attractive ones you’ll get to the good ones.

So with spring on the horizon, we’re heading into one of the good ones. It’s a time to enjoy the colors that are beginning to burst forth, to glory in the green all around you, to listen to the birds return…it’s a time to take deep breaths and smile at all that surrounds you.

Maybe it’s also time to try something new. Working on your writing? What about taking a break and heading outside with a sketchpad and some charcoal or paints? Maybe drive to somewhere you haven’t been before. You don’t have to be able to draw to do this, btw. You only have to be able to respond to what you see around you and try and commit that to paper. Get the feel of what it’s like to create something in a milieu that you know nothing about. When you were a kid in school if the teacher said draw, you drew. You didn’t care much about what anyone else said about your drawing—if you wanted a tree to be purple, you drew it that way, because that’s how you saw it. Your vision might not have been perfect in the representational sense of the word, but it was original—it was yours.

So give yourself some new challenges this spring. The season is changing so why not see if you can let that season lead you into some changes? Often, creativity is simply seeing something in a new way, so as the flowers start to bloom, imagine following their lead—let yourself flower in unexpected directions. Grab your kid’s crayons or buy some colored pencils and head out into the world with the intent to capture…something. You don’t even have to know what it is you want to capture, you just have to head out and give it a try.

I’m SO not an artist. But I once went into a museum garden with some watercolors and paper and drew an iris that was the most beautiful shade of purple. Did I capture it? Ha—are you kidding? Not even close. That was almost 15 years ago. I still have the drawing—I don’t show it to anyone because it’s pathetic. But looking at it brings back the act of painting it, which brings back how I felt… how I imagined as I painted that I was an artist. And to this day I can take myself back to what it feels like to put paint to paper. And that has stood me in good stead in the past with my writing and it may do so again.

So go—spring into action.

Copyright © Diane Lake

05Mar17

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