#reverb12


I finally found a bit of time to get my #reverb12 thoughts down in some sort of order, so here it goes...

Day 1: How are you starting?
I started December alone, with a massive migraine and a whole lot of work still to do on my end-of-year assignments for school. But I knuckled down and got it done and by the evening I was cheerily hanging baubles on the tree – much more what I had in mind.

Day 2: Your most significant spend?
Easily our most significant financial spend this year (or ever) was buying our first house. We're finally able to stop renting and have spent most of the year spending more to make the house our home. And it's been worth every cent.

Day 3: What do you really wish for?
I struggle when people ask what I want for Christmas because really, I don't want for anything. What I'd really like this holiday season is a little space, some room to breathe and a feeling of peace. I feel like this year has been a bit of a struggle, biting off, or being handed, more than I can chew and now all I want is to rest and restore.

Day 4: How will you celebrate YOU?
This season I am celebrating me with twinkle lights and afternoon naps. With time spent creating and quietly healing. With compromise and simple pleasures, special gifts to give and time spent enjoying the sun (fingers crossed).

Day 5: What was your dream destination?
When I looked back at my old art journals, I realised that I have arrived at a destination I was always yearning for, home. It is such a reoccurring theme, a sense of home, safety and belonging and I feel like I'm finally finding that. Of course, I would never turn down a trip to Paris either!

Day 6: What did you learn?
I learnt that if I have faith and hold on and don't give up, I can get through anything.  I learnt that if I risk being hurt and open myself up, I will find kindness and generosity and understanding.

Day 7: What will you take with you?
Strength. This year I found a strength that I thought I had lost. I am strong, stronger than I ever gave myself credit for, strength I am grateful for ever day and grateful for the people who gave me that strength.

Day 8: Your most important relationship?
I have turned inward this year and my most important relationship has been with myself, helping, loving and being there when it felt like no one else was. I feel like this has been at the expense of other, equally important, relationships.

Day 9: Your favourite book?
Karl Pilkington's An Idiot Abroad. I wish it was something a little more profound but at the end of some terrible hard days, this book had me in stitches and made me feel 100 times better. Laughter is the best medicine they say. That being said, Brave Intuitive Painting and Daring Adventures in Paint had me reaching for the brushes and canvases again and that was much needed therapy in itself.