I took the day off yesterday to celebrate my birthday. Past me would have felt really guilty about that, about missing a day in the midst of something I had committed to doing every day. Do you also get so stuck in a perfectionist mindset that you derail yourself for the smallest deviation from the path to the goal?

Present me, the one who has been through a pandemic and suffered personal loss and its accompanying grief this year, she knows better though. She knows that you can come back from missing a day of something (or a month…) and still do great things. She knows that our value comes from our being, not from our doing. She knows that being an artist and a writer is not about what you produce. It’s about how you view the world around you and how you express that view.

The Artist of Pages, in your spread or pulled on its own, represents being at home in your craft. You’ve reached the point where you know what you want to say, and are able to do it with eloquence and style. The confidence and generosity you feel are the product of patient, hard work. Not some flash in the pan, the Artist of Pages promises stability and emotional fulfillment.
Key words: loving, patient, healing, generosity

If you’re struggling to claim that identity of “writer” or “artist”, remind yourself that no one else gets to decide who you are. Only you get to decide that. You don’t need someone else’s approval to be who you are. You get to just be. And you don’t need to compare your actions, your place on the timeline of supposed “success”, or anything else about your creative journey with anyone else.

Hopefully you can find ways to validate yourself, to acknowledge your successes and how far you’ve come already. And then, hopefully you can share the confidence and enthusiasm you have in your own work with others who are still struggling to define themselves. We’re all doing the work of living. Let’s make something beautiful at the same time.