Day 17 Prompt

Visualize someone who is gone. Draw them with you now. What are you saying to each other?

Notes: Still too sick to draw. But it wasn’t hard to visualize my mother-in-law Alice. She’s been on my mind often, and we will be marking our first Christmas without her soon. I keep hearing from her bits of wisdom won by hard suffering. She also said some of the kindest things to me. Once when I was fluffing her pillow, she said that I would make a good nurse. Seeing as she herself was a good nurse (and a tough critic), I took this as the highest compliment. If she were here right now, she’d be asking for a glass of wine. I’d say no, because it mixed badly with her meds. And we’d go round and round.

xo, Carrie

Day 16 Pause

“Love letter” to a stranger. Draw someone you see from time to time but don’t know well. Write them a letter in the 2nd person (“you”), starting with Dear …

Notes: Still sick. It’s the flu. I composed a few opening lines for a few different strangers, but nothing made it to the page. Dear kind pharmacist… Dear kind woman who answers the phone at my doctor’s office… Dear kind delivery person who carried in a huge box for me when I went the door in pajamas, feverish and apologizing for being so sick. You took your boots off and left them on the porch.

xo, Carrie

Day 15 Prompt

Draw & write. You are dancing.

Notes: I imagined myself dancing the night away at my birthday dance party … but instead I am sick in bed, too sick to write or draw … or dance. A friend from Argentina tells me that it’s considered bad luck to celebrate one’s birthday early, so maybe that’s a small silver lining?

xo, Carrie

Day 14 Prompt

Draw and write. Things you heard today.

Notes: I am sick in bed. I wanted to do this prompt, so I grabbed my notebook and scribbled down what I was hearing in the moment, which was voices of teenagers in the attic, laughing, horsing around. I was glad I took the time to do something creative, even for a few minutes.

xo, Carrie

Day 13 Prompt

Draw & write. Where you are right now. Questions that are on your mind.

Notes: I am in office and it’s not even dark yet. But almost; twilight. I am feeling like a zombie, not enough sleep, days over-stacked, hurtling toward the “holidays.” I wonder: will I be able to slow down and rest? Why is my engine calibrated so high? Why do I crave a spin class when my brain is this tired? I wonder how to apply the new skills I’ve been learning. What is my next big thing? Big project? Big career shift? Or even small thing? Small project? Small shift? I’m not afraid of changing. I’m afraid of standing still.

xo, Carrie