On artist dates
Last week, I wrote about re-establishing a practice of morning pages. Another essential practice from that period of my life which I have now resurrected is that of ‘artist dates‘. I always thought of artist dates as simply being nice to myself and eventually they morphed into the concept of ‘small joys’, partly because I have pretty much always had a low income, but also because small joys are something nice you do for yourself every day. For me that means always wearing a cool pair of socks and eating nice food.
That said, I have decided to do slightly grander gestures for myself on a monthly basis. I suspect this will mainly involve either going to the seaside or going into the woods, both of which I have done recently, hence the pretty pictures in this post. I suppose the point of this post is simply: why do we not do things like this more often? Why do I, for one, need to turn going out into nature into some kind of ritual in order to entice myself to do it?
Another point is simply to entice you to do it, too. When was the last time you stepped away from your life, from tech (okay, you can also take loads of photos but don’t broadcast your trip on social media), and just experienced the day? The sunshine, the wind, the rain, the breeze. The whatever is happening wherever you are at that very moment? The art in the gallery, the skateboard under your feet, the paddle board on the ocean. When were you there, and only there, with no immediate reportage to your ‘followers’ on whatever social media site you use?
Step out, find some silence, and once you’ve come to terms to that, may you also follow through into Silence.
(PS: Click on the last photo to see the view over London. It was pretty special.)