{Personal} The Beauty Project: My first Artist's Date

An artist's date is a blocked time for myself, by myself...to nurture my "creative consciousness" (term from the book The Artist's Way). In short, it's a play date! It's part of the creative program I'm doing in support of my new year's resolution. I know it may sound a little facetious, but I'm going to keep an open mind and let's face it, how many busy moms complain about not having time for themselves? My first thought when introduced to the concept of the Artist's Date was,"How am I going to find time to do this?" Funny, how things work out. A time opened up for me to have this first date and an opportunity for a set, blocked time has come up I need to explore! God gives me exactly what I need, when I need it...as He usually does.

For my first date, I took myself to the bookstore to read children's books. Yep, you read that right. It was the first thing I thought of, but honestly I felt a little silly. After entertaining, seemingly several "silly" ideas, I decided to go with the first. My judgment, reluctance, resistance are probably the very things this exercise serves to help dispel. I remembered when I was 20-something years old, living in Chicago, I came across a children's book called Why Do You Love Me? written by Laura Schlessinger. I think I was looking for a gift for a friend and I fell in love with this book...so I bought one for myself. I'm so glad that I did because I enjoyed reading it to my daughter when she was younger.

I love the way young children think. Why not color trees on a coloring book page purple? Why does it have to be green? I've let Marisa pick out her outfits for as long as I can remember, maybe as early as 4 or 5....yes, there are times that I furrow my eyebrows wondering what she was thinking when she paired up a plaid skirt with a striped shirt or other very confusing combinations. She continues to wear mix matched socks because she likes to; it makes her happy. Now it's kind of the "in" thing, right? She's good at spotting trends; what can I say? I just know that it makes her happy. She feels good in it. Inspired to have the same uninhibited feeling, for my first date, I decided to be a kid and read children's books in the children's section. :) Along the way, I picked up a great book for Marisa.

Hmmm...what to do for date number two...