Every morning (well, almost) this week I’ve been getting up and heading straight to my art desk to do a pretty well-known writing exercise called “morning pages”. I was reminded about morning pages when I re-read Craft For The Soul by Pip Lincolne last weekend. 

The idea of the exercise is that you get up and before the day gets going, you write three pages, longhand. Three pages of whatever comes to mind, it’s not for publication, it’s not a productivity tool, or a to-do list, you just write. This can seem very strange but usually something interesting comes from it. 

For me that’s been reflections on the view from 48. You can check out my last blog post for more on that. In a nutshell, I’m turning 48 in about 42 days (I haven’t had coffee yet so my mathematical abilities are even shakier than they usually are) and that has made me think about how I got from there to here, what’s helped, what matters, stuff like that there. 

One morning this week, instead of writing, I drew a picture of my earliest memory, and shared it on Instagram and Facebook. It was me, wrapped in a towel, warming myself up in front of the Vulcan heater, after a bath. I wasn’t happy with the squareness of my towel ensconced shoulders, so I drew myself again. 

Little me. Damp hair. I like her.

In my morning pages this week, I’ve noticed that I’m circling around some of the anchoring issues in my life – adoption, rejection, acceptance, encouragement and self confidence. I’m still ruminating on those topics, so I won’t go into detail here, yet. I was talking with someone on Facebook a few weeks ago, and that late night conversation has really got me thinking about what I can be doing to light the path for others, based on my own experiences. Thanks Nat! 

In that spirit, on Wednesday I decided to declare #wingwomanwednesday on Twitter and Instagram. 

Clearly my peeps aren’t that active on Twitter, but they ARE on Instagram. 

Soon enough, there was a lovefest in progress, with people giving virtual high fives to women they appreciate here, there and everywhere. It was SO RAD! 

As people saw themselves tagged, they replied, and joined the party, sending more love out to more of their gal pals. 

LIFE GOALS!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Did hundreds of people get on board? No. 

Does that matter at all? Hell no. (World domination takes time!)

If only one person had seen my post and tagged one girlfriend, a girlfriend who might have been having a super shit day or feeling a tad lonely or was just having a mundane Wednesday afternoon, and she saw herself tagged as someone’s wingwoman, and felt appreciated and loved, then DROP THE MIC! 

 

I believe that encouraging acts like these are utterly essential in life. 

Utterly. Essential. 

I certainly would not be who I am without them. 

The view from 48 – it’s a long, winding path lit by torches of encouragement that kept me going, and continue to do so. 

When I ponder the most powerful force in my life, it has to be encouragement. 

I think I’ll make one small change to this hashtag for next week, it’s got to be #wingwomenwednesday because it takes a village, right ladies? 

Thank you so much to those who got into the spirit of my first foray into mass encouragement. Your words of affection and love for each other buoyed me up this week. 

And remember, you don’t have to wait until Wednesday to encourage someone! 

With love, 

Annette