Say Nice Things To Yourself
Just a reminder to notice the beautiful things around you as well as the magic you have within.
You know that voice in your head that says mean things all the time? Well, I would like to tell that voice to PLEASE SHUT UP! If you’re having trouble coming up with something nice to say to yourself right now, I offer you this tiny zine.
Don’t get me wrong. When a doom spiral of negativity starts, it is hard to hear the good things. But despite how hard it is to be a person in this broken world, there continues to be an astonishing amount of wonderful, mind-blowing things to notice. In support of our collective sanity, I think it’s important to look for these things. And when we find them, we need to tell the person next to us, “Wow! Look at that beautiful thing.”
My Mom is incredibly good at this. Her gift for seeing and sharing everyday beauty has become even more obvious to me in the wake of losing my Dad. Despite how hard and sad and scary things are right now, my Mom is constantly pointing out something beautiful to me. It turns out, she has been doing this my entire life.
I used to think it was specifically her admiration for sunsets and skies (in fact, I made a zine called Sky Blue Pink about this), but I’ve come to realize it’s much more than that. Over the course of just the past week, my Mom has pointed out the leaves on trees, interesting brick and stone textures on a building, the way light hit something in the house and reflected on the wall in a cool way, and many more tiny, beautiful things. It’s just in her nature.
My Mom is an artist. She would fully deny this fact, but she is. And here’s why. It is the job of artists to notice things and find ways to point them out and say, “Wow, look at this!” Whether that’s through everyday craft projects (my Mom is the Queen of Crafting!), or through painting, or drawing, or writing, or acting, or a host of other creative expressions. By making things and sharing them with others, we find uniquely human ways say to the people around us, “Wow! This is fascinating. This is difficult. This is beautiful. Look at this!” Think about the ways you do this in your life, and you might just realize (if you haven’t already) that you are an artist too.
Speaking of everyday craft projects, my Mom and I made these really cool marbled ornaments with nail polish the other night, and it was so fun! It was a little messy and a bit odiferous (due to the nail polish), but dipping each ornament in squiggly blobs of floating paint (in a disposable container of room temperature water) was a total delight and offered a new discovery of patterns and colors each time. Here’s how they turned out:
I’m no expert on this craft, but if you want to learn more I recommend Googling “How to make marbled ornaments with nail polish.” You will find a ton of video and blog tutorials!
Thanks for reading!
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