Beginning a new chapter

One of the reasons I started writing these Advent posts was a way for me to reflect on the past year while preparing my heart and soul for the annual transition through the holidays and into the new year, and from the dark of winter to the light of spring. These days when more and more minutes of the day are in darkness, so many things become harder. The discipline of making and writing help me through this time.

Many theologians write about the “dark nights of the soul,” times we all have experienced where life challenges us for whatever reason. Sometimes these challenges loom over us, other times they pick, pick, pick away at our fiber, inciting us to change: to step out of an old story, an old way of being and into a new way of being.

I am working to change some things in my life, but I keep getting stuck in a couple of thorny areas. I need accountability, deadlines, homework. Some of it I am good at creating for myself, but other things, well, it’s great to have an outsider help me examine my life and guide me through the creation of goals and plans. Over the past six months or so, I’ve been working with Amber Chand, a visionary life and business coach. Amber has this gift of being able to inspire, calm and encourage while also subtly pushing you to walk out of what no longer serves you and towards the things that you love, that the world needs and that you are gifted in doing. While much of my life is centered around those things, I need to shift a little, and she is helping me name what that means.

Here’s a bit more about Amber:

Today’s Assignment:

1. Begin with a highly patterned piece of paper as your first layer. Mute it with gesso if you have it, or just leave it as is.
2. Take another piece of paper that has interesting yet contrasting texture. Cut it randomly in 2-3 places. Reassemble those pieces over your first layer, letting a bit of the first layer peek through.
3. Add a third “activation” layer. In my case I am using one of my figure stencils. You can either add a paper layer or a gesso layer, like I did here.
4. Add a fourth layer. It can be a transfer, it can be something like the dotted lines I have here, or something else. You decide.