A Simple Daily Practice Changed Everything I Create

Nothing ever stays the same.

I was never a writer. I am a visual learner, a visual artist. I don’t identify as a writer.

I was so averse to writing that even sending thank-you cards to people in my younger years was a sporadic and painful endeavor. Of course, that’s something I regret nowadays since I cherish any vestige of civilization.

All my artwork has been inspired by the gardens surrounding my studio. For years, decades really, I created paintings, drawings, and digital images of my garden, the gardens of my friends, and the flowers in them. I observed the colors, the curves, the composition of each and translated this into my art. This work made me visually happy

A rose bud in my June garden.

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Now and then, I’d write a blog post about my artwork, my garden, and how they were intertwined. But writing was still a chore for me, not something I was as eager to engage in as it was for me walking into the studio and flipping on the lights. I had studied writing only a semester or two in college, but I didn’t really know it as a discipline. I write as I speak.

Over the years though, I took writing workshops in fits and starts, with the hope of learning to enjoy and improve my writing. During Covid, like many of us, I took a variety of workshops. Seth Godin, my marketing guru, hosted the Story Skills Workshop with Bernadette Jiwa and The Creatives Workshop through Akimbo. Both courses piqued my interest in writing as a way to help my artwork speak not only visually, but with a voice. Something like subtitles that help me decipher more of the content in the movies and videos I’m watching.

In one of Seth’s daily blog posts, he mentioned a TED Talk by Matthew Dicks, called Homework For Life. It entails a daily writing discipline about something that happened during the day that changed you in some way. He puts a sentence or so on a line in a spreadsheet with these observations. This simplified writing flipped the lights on for me and changed my life.

Beginning in 2021, I started journaling. Each evening, I sit in my comfy spot on the couch with my laptop and think about what happened during my day. Initially, my writing was somewhat like a diary, giving a play-by-play description of my entire day. But, over time, I began to write about what changed for me during the day. What did someone say, or what did I see or feel that changed me? What did I observe as I went about my life that enriched me from the person I was in the morning to who I became by the end of the day?

My life has been immeasurably transformed by these writings and observations. I have heightened my sensitivity to the world surrounding me. What I touch, what I hear, what I think about. I take moments out of my day to stop and smell the proverbial roses. Recently, I wrote about watching a bee rolling about sensuously in a lush bed of pollen. I spend time with the little things, buds ready to burst open on plants I’ve nurtured over the years, the different twittering of the birds who visit my garden, the shape of clouds sailing above offering relief from the hot sun, the transformation and seasonal lifecycle as we move throughout the year.

These observations are within my grasp. They offer me insights into purpose and interconnectedness. This daily writing has helped to heighten my sensitivity and awareness of the world I’m a part of. It enriches my mind and my wonder. It grounds me and gives me peace.

This daily writing has not only transformed my art but also transformed me as a human being. Now I paint about ideas and emotions. Now, I don’t just paint gardens, I understand that the garden has taught me about community and all the elements and sentient beings that are needed to create a healthy environment for growth. I now think grander thoughts than previously. My large oil paintings of flowers have worlds embedded within them. My writing helps them to speak in words and enables the viewer to connect with their message and enter their world.

Journaling has become an integral part of my creative workflow. It not only changed me, but it also changed the art I create and share with the world. My writing has become another art form for me, one that I also create and share. I now gratefully identify myself as an artist, a gardener, and a writer.

Two bees enjoying a yellow dahlia.

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