Draw’n, Together

*H/T to the amazing author Minh Le for inspiration. If you don’t have a copy of Drawn Together, go get it, now.

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You know that you can draw, right? 

I say this, because.

I can draw.

Yet, sadly I’ve spent most of my adult life unconsciously believing that I can’t.

Elephant is hesitant.

He sticks with what is safe. Blind contour drawings, where mistakes are part of the gig. Shies away from attempting to draw something that might expose himself

Spot it, you got it.

I’m not sure when I stopped having a growth mindset around drawing. But it had to have been somewhere around middle school. I began to tell myself that I wasn’t an artist. 

It makes me sad, still.

The best time to plant a tree is 40 years ago, the second best time is today 

Practice what I preach

I pick up my journal more often these days, telling myself that I can do it. Letting go of the voices haunting me from middle school.

What’s that? 

It looks nothing like a person

It probably wasn’t anything so traumatic, but for whatever reason, perfectionism got the better of me. Kept me from putting myself out there. I still get self-conscious when someone mentions a task involving drawing anything.

And so, some 40 years later, I am learning, as I once did, how to draw

With less worry, judgment, or fear. 

And I’m counseling my son to do the same. 

Not because I want us to be accomplished artists, 

But because drawing at its heart, like writing, is a way for us to make sense of the world. To find our place in the universe, a connection between pen, paper, and the world around us.

I reach into my backpack, pull out my collection of pens, my sturdy but light journal,

and look

I follow what I see with my hands, create something that is neither perfect nor professional,

but good enough for who I am, and where I am.

And, as I watch elephant do the same, we capture some of our

joy

together

on the page

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