October: State your Gratitude & Your Intentions

Here we are, in the midst of the most tumultuous of transitions. Where the summer sun doesn’t wish to leave, but when she does, the leaves crackle, becoming red, yellow, purple of transience, and appearing different day by day, week by week. Just as the leaves are fiending for more sunlight and nutrients, as are our physical and mental bodies as we enter the last quarter of the calendar year.

As I write this, I am about to spend the last few days at my full-time job, spend the next few sunny days with friends and family for Thanksgiving festivities and meals, and will hop a plane to board for the UK, next Thursday.

This time, next week I will be in London, UK about to pursue the scariest thing this year. I love travel more than many things and people, and for the first time this year, I barely have an idea what I will be doing in Europe or whom I will meet up with. I booked two flights, one from Toronto to London and one from London to Berlin, Germany. Aside from that, I have done minimal research of my wherabouts, gave up on searching up accommodations and most sought out neighbourhoods, and have trusted the hands of many strangers that I have met on CouchSurfing to assist me in showing me around.

Talk about GIVING UP CONTROL to the Universe.

Alright, I have an idea of what I will be doing here. I’m on a creative and spiritual journey. Most of the travel that I had pursued this year, included planned itineraries, pre-booked flights and accommodations, and scheduling with hosts, friends, and an organized sense of what was to be expected (i.e. Jamaica for a music and cultural festival, Mexico for a bachelorette, Nicaragua for a surf camp)

I actually booked this one-way flight a month ago, quite spontaneously perhaps. I have an inkling that I want to work and apply for graduate school in Germany given the plethora of opportunities in digital media and the arts. In addition to the variety of academic institutions to choose from - many of which offer courses in English and are financially supportive of International Students, I felt like this was my calling to move forward with my own career path. Many people don’t know that I studied Art History in my undergraduate years. On top of attaining a diploma in Digital Media, I have a profound sense of bringing artistic expression and its therapeutic benefits back to the forefront of my own life. Yoga and fitness have aided in helping me assess my mental health for the longest while during my 20’s. Now as I become more clear and forthright with my decision, I have recognized my first-love resides in the creative process of painting, illustration, digital manipulation, and creative design work.

“The longer you do creative work, the more you realize mood has nothing to do with it. Artists are life processors. Life Processors cursed with opinions.
One day, we’ll like what we create. One day(more days), we will hate it. Keep on making things long enough and you will learn, to your embarassment, that the good work and the bad are often not so far apart. In fact, some of your bad work looks pretty good. So you might as well just do it, and do it stubbornly, and do it all the time.

Because mood is a slippery thing and what it tells you cannot be trusted - but process can. And process is the reward of patience.” ”

— Julia Cameron, The Vein of Gold

Projects, Stakeholders, & Partnerships!