Welcome to heART❤️SCHOOL, the current iteration of my thrice-monthly blog.
On the 3rd I deliver WORDS to your inbox, on the 13th it’s PICTURES, and on the 23rd, SOUND. (If you’re not on my email list, sign up here.)

Love For You

It’s hard to listen to the news these days without feeling anxious and defeated. So today I’m sending you visual love, rustled up around my home and studio, to soothe your senses. Sit back and enjoy, then pass it on! 🥰✨

Love and Agency

We’ve been talking about agency this month — the awareness that we’re the Deciders in our lives and that our decisions make a difference. (That’s my loose definition.) May we use our agency to choose love. That might mean not jumping to conclusions about why that person did that annoying thing, but instead being curious about their life. Or it could mean reaching out to someone to make amends, even if it seems like it’s their turn or their obligation to reach out to you.

Rather than “fight hate” like the bumper sticker says, maybe we can love it out of existence, like MLK taught. Agency feels a lot like being the grown-up in the room. Not blaming, shaming, or waiting for others to fix things, but finding where we can use our skills and resources for the good of all. Doing our soul’s work, in other words. ✨

End Notes

> To find out what the heck heART❤️SCHOOL is all about, go here.

> Through September 30th I’m donating half of the proceeds from my shop to (most likely) Planned Parenthood. See my last post here to learn why, and thanks to Marie G.-G. for reminding me about Justin Baldoni’s work, and for other suggestions that were sent in. Click here to browse artwork, greeting cards, art-making kits and more.

> I’m experimenting with Ko-fi, a site that enables creatives to receive a little moolah for their traditionally unpaid work (like blogging, podcasting, sharing how-to videos on YouTube…) directly from the people who benefit from it. You can choose to “buy me a coffee” if you like what I do and the spirit moves you to give. 😉Why this method? Because I like to get us thinking about what we value, and ways we might share our resources that are not strictly capitalistic. The cute little button that takes you to my Ko-fi page looks like this:

With Gratitude 🙏🏽

Finally, thank you for being on this heART❤️SCHOOL journey with me. I love picturing some of you who I know are at least occasional readers of my blog. It helps me to not feel like I’m writing into a black hole. 🤓I very much appreciate that, and I always enjoy hearing from you.

Pam

P.S. Portlanders, this just in: I’ll be offering a free art journaling /doodling workshop on Saturday, Sept 25th from 1:00 - 2:30 pm at Cafe Eleven, 435 NE Rosa Parks Way. I’d love to see you there!