So, I’ve been designing the 2016 How to Live at the Beach Calendar. Designing a calendar is like mapping out your life in advance–something that I am dreadful at. You gotta think about your issues and how you want to deal with them in the future. It’s a little like making a New Year’s resolution. Except you have to make resolutions for every month. I’m talking TWELVE resolutions. More than that really, as most pages have multiple illustrations and words. So let’s just say thirty resolutions… And I don’t usually make any.
When I start the calendar, I am overwhelmed. After all, this is not just about next year, it’s about the year after that. And it’s not just about me, it’s about what most women will be dealing with/thinking about. “I have no idea,” I say to myself (and whoever else will listen to me) about a million times. Until I get sick of myself. Then I just start scribbling. What would I like to see staring at me from the kitchen wall every morning when I’m making coffee?
Usually, I need a “You can do it!” A couple, “Don’t be afraid’s.” A permission slip. And then I need a “Snap out of it!” to get me to actually act in my own behalf. I’m a person who needs a lot of noodging along in life. I also need a lot of reminders to relax and enjoy life (instead of working), to breathe, to unwind (my chiropractor calls it “unclenching”). I know enough about myself to know that these things will never change.
So, I just start. And I find, in the process of drawing and writing, that I know exactly what I’ll need in 2016. It’s about the same thing I’ll need this year… and the next… and the next…