10 more days of my July daily challenge! Time has flown by, and simultaneously I feel like I’ve lived a whole lifetime these past 21 days. That is what living mindfully does for you. What thinking deeply and personally does. It is a drug.

Between yesterday and today, I’m fairly certain a few people think I have a personality disorder. Extreme dark and light, hopeful and depressing…sometimes my images are all over the place. I try to keep a visual cohesion for when I veer off the thematic rails, but this month is for experimenting, and today I set out to create another light-focused image. July is my experimentation month, better known as learning-more-in-July-than-in-my-whole-career month.

The other day I was interviewed and the person asking the questions prefaced by saying that they really, really hoped one of the questions they had wouldn’t upset me or offend me. The question was how I can be so different from my art. I giggled, a lot, at that question because of course I wasn’t offended! I am so grateful that I am not a harbinger of darkness (sidenote: my husband calls me Shade, so there’s that irony). But it isn’t totally true to say that I am so different from my art.

At the heart of what we do, whether it seems that way or not, is our very essence. I am able to create with darkness, not live in it. There is a distinct difference, but it doesn’t mean that I am not comprised of light and dark. We are all both, and we create from different pieces of ourselves depending on the day.

Today was a definite light day, especially after yesterday’s darkness. I like to swing the pendulum.

I’m settling in now to planning and reading and eating banana bread and generally having the greatest Friday evening. I hope you find a piece of bliss today, too.