Creative Rest – an update

I’m still in recovery mode from the exhausted state I wrote about a while ago. Figuring out how to get emotional rest still has me confused so I decided to focus on getting creative rest. According to Saundra Dalton-Smith creative rest feeds the imagination and creates hope. Hope is something I could do with right now as I feel like I’m stuck in a loop of same old same old most of the time.

Dalton-Smith suggests focusing on what you find beautiful. We have just experienced a truly glorious autumn down here in south east Australia. The weather was benign and the light golden. I spent a lot of time in parks and down at the beach just enjoying the beauty of it all until winter blew in on howling winds in early June and our long dry spell broke in sheets of icy rain. The ground is now muddy and getting out for a walk can be challenge.

Rather than sink into gloom (always a distinct possibility) I’ve been fiddling about finishing old creative projects. This gets tedious sometimes so this week I tried making something new. I ecoprinted some water colour paper with the autumn leaves I’d collected on my walks and stored in freezer. The results were quite pleasing and for the first time in ages I felt motivated. I printed out some autumnal photos on tissue paper and glued them onto the eco printed paper. I then made it all up into a concertina book.

It was a relief to finally create something I actually like and it’s inspired me to do more. I’d like to include text but at present, I’m not sure just how to do this. I’ll keep experimenting. The text for this little book would be a haiku I wrote a while ago:-

The cold winter wind
tears away the autumn leaves
– the temple appears