Catégorie : one card a week

it’s summertime still… I go back to work at the end of the month. Summer break seems to reach its end as I work more and more for next year. Time for reflexion!

This summer, I spent time by myself, but I also had some bonding time with friends and familly. And I love each and every moment of it. I took the time to meditate, to do some self inquiry, and it helped me a lot to find some balance, to know where I was standing. And it feels good. A lot of things needed to be dealt with last year, mostly emotionally. I feel I am reaching a new page of my story. And I can’t wait to write it.

So this summer, I didn’t went to all the places I thought I would, but I found peace and that was the most important.

So here is your challenge:

One card a week 33

Quote: « Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart.” Native American Proverb

Pattern: Auracross

Here are the rules of the challenge:

• Each thursday, I’ll give you a quote and a pattern to play with. You can use both, you can use only one of them, it’s up to you.
• You have till the next wednesday to make your card and share it with us in the facebook group (just ask to be added, and I will open the doors wide open to you )
• The goal of this challenge it just to offer yourself a time to have fun with pens and cards, to ponder on words, to enjoy a ME time. We tend to forget about ourselves so easily! And sharing is such a beautiful thing to experiment in our life!

And here is my card

We live in a time when we are judged on our physical aspect. You just have to switch on your tv, or go online, or even open a magazine and it is here: perfect teeth, perfect shape, perfect body…. ok… but what about those of us that aren’t that perfect? I mean, my teeth are not perfect (very bad orthodontist, years of pain to have my teeth straightened when I was a teenager for….. nothing, these last 5 years they went back to their old ways….. ), I am overweight (emotional weight, they call it, I gained a lot of weight during my daughter’s sickness), I have salt and pepper hair (and I am proud of it… nope, I won’t color them!). Thing is: does it make me less worthy ?

To me, there is more than my physical aspect. I take care of myself, I eat healthy for… my whole life, I stopped smoking, I don’t drink at all, I try to exercise, but I don’t feel the need to reach this « ideal » physical type, as I am not made out of this mold. Weirdly, my main focus was on being a good person. I try to care, to share, to help, to teach, to learn. To feel.

So lately, I try to adjust my soul and my body. Because they are the two side of who I am. And if I want to be full, I need to take care of both.

So here is your challenge:

One card a week 32

Quote: « You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body. » Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Pattern: flattery

Here are the rules of the challenge:

• Each thursday, I’ll give you a quote and a pattern to play with. You can use both, you can use only one of them, it’s up to you.
• You have till the next wednesday to make your card and share it with us in the facebook group (just ask to be added, and I will open the doors wide open to you )
• The goal of this challenge it just to offer yourself a time to have fun with pens and cards, to ponder on words, to enjoy a ME time. We tend to forget about ourselves so easily! And sharing is such a beautiful thing to experiment in our life!

And here is my card

This week is a double challenge one, as I couldn’t post my card last week (I was spending some time with friends at the other side of France, enjoying my vacations, trying to just live the days as they came… ). So today is last week’s challenge and saturday will be this week’s… it will be fun!!

This week quote really reaches its full meaning now. I love it when I feel like I wrote myself messages when I chose quotes last december. Sometimes, we just have to choose to live, and not to try to understand why we do this or that. Just live the moment, enjoy the people you are with, open your eyes, open your heart and just …. ENJOY!

Trust is a big issue in my life… I can explain it, and I am ok with that. most of the time. I just don’t trust people at first. It takes me a long time to give my trust to someone… A very long time. Sometimes, I don’t even trust myself… I am so goo at taking bad decisions… But I work on it, and I start to trust myself a bit more. Because the one I was when I made those bad choices is long gone. When I decided to accept one of my friends’ invitation to go and spend some time with her and her familly ont he other side of France, I tried not to ponder too much… I just jumped on the opportunity. And that was a really good choice. i met wonderful people, saw beautiful places, and had really deep conversations. Perfect vacations.

So here is your challenge:

One card a week 30

Quote: « I am learning to trust the journey even if I don’t understand it.”

Pattern: knot rickz

Here are the rules of the challenge:

• Each thursday, I’ll give you a quote and a pattern to play with. You can use both, you can use only one of them, it’s up to you.
• You have till the next wednesday to make your card and share it with us in the facebook group (just ask to be added, and I will open the doors wide open to you )
• The goal of this challenge it just to offer yourself a time to have fun with pens and cards, to ponder on words, to enjoy a ME time. We tend to forget about ourselves so easily! And sharing is such a beautiful thing to experiment in our life!

And here is my card.

When people tell me I am courageous to go on the way I do, I tend not to understand. I don’t feel courageous… I just try to go on, that’s it.

And then it hit me: what if what people call courage is what I call ‘trying’. I don’t give up. I almost never gave up. It’s not who I am, it’s not in my genes. I don’t think it’s really wise, but it’s the way I am.

Then I thought about what « courage » meant…

Cambridge dictionary define « courage » as  » the ability to control your fear in a dangerous or difficult situation ».

Then I understood why I didn’t feel courageous. I faced my worst fear in life, and it became real and changed my whole life. Since then, I really feel fearless. I don’t take risks or anything, I just don’t feel fear anymore in my everyday life. I just… well, go on. When Emma passed, it was different. I didn’t really go on… I tried to. To honor my promise, to honor her memory, because she wouldn’t have wanted me to just give up. Because it wouldn’t have been me, the one she loved. So I tried. Some days, I just couldn’t and stayed home crying all day long. And it was fine. Some days, I could go outside and even get groceries. Some days, I didn’t xant tot talk to anyone, and other days I would be able to talk with my familly or a friend. I just kept going. I just kept trying to go on. And if people want to see it as courage, it’s fine with me. To me it’s more being faithfull to the most beautiful person I had the chance to meet and love in my life.

So here is this week’s challenge

One card a week 27

Quote: « Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says “I’ll try again tomorrow.” Mary Anne Radmacher

Pattern: Flowking

Here are the rules of the challenge:

• Each thursday, I’ll give you a quote and a pattern to play with. You can use both, you can use only one of them, it’s up to you.
• You have till the next wednesday to make your card and share it with us in the facebook group (just ask to be added, and I will open the doors wide open to you )
• The goal of this challenge it just to offer yourself a time to have fun with pens and cards, to ponder on words, to enjoy a ME time. We tend to forget about ourselves so easily! And sharing is such a beautiful thing to experiment in our life!

And here is my card. Shading does eveything! I love love this pattern and I sure will use it again!

I still ‘work’ on getting my self back. No more following the flow, no more looking for acceptance. I get my life back. I make my own choices, I take my own decisions. And what I make with it is up to me.

It’s not that easy to be truly yourself. It’s not that easy to exonerate yourself from what people may think or not. It’s even harder to really thing and feel that what other people may think about you is not your business. They have THEIR vision, THEIR opinion, THEIR feelings, THEIR thoughts. And none of them are YOUR problem. Just be yourself, and enjoy your life. Make it something you can be proud of, make it something beautiful. This is your responsability.

So in fact it’s a shift in the way we consider our life. From looking for acceptance from others, to looking for acceptance from yourself. And it’s far easier, in fact. Far richer too.

Voltaire, a french philosopher wrote  » you must cultivate your garden ». And that’s what I aim to do: cultivate my self as I would cultivate a garden, taking care of each parcel of my soul. Growing. Being beautiful.

One card a week 26

Quote: « Your mind is a garden. Your thought are the seeds. You can grow flowers, or you can grow weeds.”

Pattern: petal 7

Here are the rules of the challenge:

• Each thursday, I’ll give you a quote and a pattern to play with. You can use both, you can use only one of them, it’s up to you.
• You have till the next wednesday to make your card and share it with us in the facebook group (just ask to be added, and I will open the doors wide open to you )
• The goal of this challenge it just to offer yourself a time to have fun with pens and cards, to ponder on words, to enjoy a ME time. We tend to forget about ourselves so easily! And sharing is such a beautiful thing to experiment in our life!

And here is my card

We all face adversity. If not we are either blind or really lucky. For the rest of us, we have to face people who act in a way that it may hurt us deeply. I have to deal with that. No, it’s up to us to let them reach us or not. My natural way of dealing with it is to just blow, fight back and turn around to deal with what really matters… Yes, when attacked or hurt, I am not the soft and kind person, I am more like a wounded animal….

Now I realise it doesn’t solve anything. And I decided that reacting that way just gives more weight to a situation that doesn’t deserve my attention. So I decided to move on, to let go and to just be ‘better’ than that.

And one of the steps I need to take is to shield, and to stop showing people that I can be hurt. Well, not everybody, just people that play this game with me again, and again, and again… I am so sick of it. I need peace of mind, and this is how I will get it.

One card a week 25

Quote: « Be strong when you are weak, be brave when you are scared, be humble when you are victorious “

Pattern: tri-bee

Here are the rules of the challenge:

• Each thursday, I’ll give you a quote and a pattern to play with. You can use both, you can use only one of them, it’s up to you.
• You have till the next wednesday to make your card and share it with us in the facebook group (just ask to be added, and I will open the doors wide open to you )
• The goal of this challenge it just to offer yourself a time to have fun with pens and cards, to ponder on words, to enjoy a ME time. We tend to forget about ourselves so easily! And sharing is such a beautiful thing to experiment in our life!

And here is my card (I played again with my paints and salt…. )