Beauty All Around

The problem is that there are a lot of things I want to resolve. I want to learn to knit. To make sourdough bread. I think quilting would be fun. And writing a book. I’d love to send some of my essays out into the world. I’d love to redesign this blog, and set up a shop for journals, reading guides, and such.

And then there are habits I’d love to establish: reading the Bible and writing down a verse or two that shimmers or startles me. Baking and cooking more. Setting the table for breakfast and not just dinner.

I ran across this quote a while back: I will make everything around me beautiful. That will be my life,” (Elsie DeWolfe) and I think that it perfectly fits what I’m leaning towards when I think about these things I want to learn and do. I’m not saying I’ll turn a blind eye to sad or scary things, in fact, I think it’s the opposite. What makes me afraid, filled with worry, what keeps me up at night, or what makes me sad, I’ll turn towards with care. I’ll look at these things as “dragons…who are waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage,” as Rilke suggests.

So my New Year’s Resolution is to make what’s around me beautiful by creating something every day. It could be a blog post, a note to a friend, a recipe, the beginning of an essay. It might be a lesson plan or a DIY project. Maybe it’ll be a scarf I knit for one of the girls’ Barbies because let’s be realistic.

I made a sign with the Elsie DeWolfe’s words on it and am using Elise Blaha Cripe’s letterpress print to track my progress. Here is a grid of photos of some of the projects I’ve been working on so far:

Sometimes I’ll write about them as well.

Elise’s print came with a sticker that says, “Big things happen one day at a time,” and I hung it on the whiteboard in my classroom above my student’s seating charts. I hope they fill their last days of middle school making everything around them beautiful as they sift through what’s murky right now.

I’m happy with my plan for 2015. It feels creative and challenging, and right up my (sometimes very dark) alley.