I live in a family of people who move very fast and want to see ALL the things when we’re travelling. I, on the other hand, am happy to see fewer things and just sit and be and soak in a place more. But, I find it hard to do because I worry I’ll miss out on some fantastic shared family experience. FOMO. So, I tend to run around behind my family, slightly (sometimes very!) grumpy and grumbling… Many times I’ve vowed to myself that on the next trip I’d go more slowly, at my own pace. I’d stay back even as everyone else was wanting to visit one more museum, climb one more clock tower, pop into one more church… But I’ve never been successful, until now. And it’s all because of my tiny little travel watercolour set. On this trip, instead of feeling lazy or worrying about missing out when I stayed behind, I felt creative and full of energy. I might be missing out on the view from the top of the clock tower, but I was dropping into a creative space, I was really looking at things, feeling things, experiencing things, expressing things… I was picking up sticks and leaves to use as makeshift paintbrushes… I was sprinkling sand to add texture to my pages, pressing in tiny flowers… I was really in the moment, enjoying being exactly where I was. No FOMO! Finally.
I won’t leave home without my watercolours again!
I’ll be showing the watercolours I made in Portugal and Italy this June and the ones I made in Southern Africa last July in my back garden as part of the Glebe Art in the Garden tour this weekend (July 4 and 5 from 10-4pm). I hope to see you. xo
