Nurture:  “to care for and encourage the growth or development of”.  It’s a word, an experience that was absent in the years of my childhood.  To care for and encourage the growth or development of – ah yes, I know this; it’s what I do for others, from as far back as I can remember.  Nurture – something that so many of us have not known, or known very rarely.  It’s what our world, and each of our very precious selves is so in need of. I’m thankful to Becca for encouraging us to flood our world with nurture each Thursday.

On and off, throughout my adult life, I have done things that nurtured me, sometimes without even being aware it is what I was doing.  When I turned 55, I decided that each year, on my birthday, I would do something I had never done before.  There was a full moon that year and I chose, as my something I’d never done before, to dance naked under the moonlight!  And thus began the knowing that I could, I could do things I’d never done before and that, if I listened to my heart, I would be guided in choosing those things.

For as far back as I can remember, I’ve wanted to draw, hence the Dubious Artist post I shared a little while ago. Please allow me to take a moment, here, to thank each of you who commented with encouragement. You guys rock!

It’s one thing to announce, on your blog, you are attempting something you are sure you can’t do, it’s another to just do it!  But I did and a funny thing happened. First, I organized:

and then I planned:

and then I drew:

and then I sighed, because, seriously….

But my heart kept whispering “there is an artist inside you” and I so wanted to let her out.  So I sat down, without organizing, without planning, I sat still, I breathed and I drew:

and then I sat back and smiled!

When I shared this on Facebook, a funny thing happened: a friend asked me if I was left-handed since the noses all point to the left.  Hmm,  I likely “was” left-handed originally. My mother was, one of my brothers is, both my sons are…and, interestingly, my daughter piped up to say she always thought I was left-handed.

So, then, I sat some more, this time with pencil in my left hand:

All this, to say, if nurture means to care for and encourage the growth or development of, then I think I’m doing a good job of nurturing myself right now.  And then, a friend sent me a beautiful water-painting set…………but that is a story for another day!