So I have been drawing like I always do. A morning cup of coffee or tea or nothing will give me pause and my pencil and pen being finding a form. People often ask me where I get my ideas from when I begin each image. I don’t always have an answer but this week and last I do. I found this tiny book of four poems by T.S. Eliot in a second hand shop in Ipswich one day when I was in town and wanted to coffee. I have found that going into a coffee shop and sitting alone staring into space is not something I enjoy, I take my current book or my drawing things….hence the name of this page and business….coffee and colouring in and drawing and reading all go together for me.

You know that thing that happens when you open a book to buy and randomly read a sentence or paragraph….I have bought massively expensive history books because the author has used words with such insight and beauty that I am drawn into the ideas and put down extremely cheap but very popular ones because that didn’t happen. Well Mr Eliot was writing like he was inside my head and experience of that day when I picked up his book and knew it was the one I was meant to read for this now.

These are the words I read (in East Coker): “You say I am repeating Something I have said  before. I shall say it again. Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there, To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not, You must go by way wherein there is no ecstasy. In order to arrive at what you do not know You must go by way of ignorance. In order to possess what you do not possess you must go by the way of dispossession. In order to arrive at what you are not you must go through the way in which you are not. And what you do not know is the only thing you know And what you own is what you do not own and where you are is where you are not…..”  These are the words that asked me to read his. These are the words that lead me to his words that asked me to consider again what the meaning of a word, many words might be. I decided they should be little ordinary words. Something that might simply slip by without a thought but hold profound meaning in some moments and none in others.

Mr Eliots words asked to me to consider the words I use each day about myself and my situation. It is what marketers do all the time. Find the power words and include them in their paragraphs so you are more likely to read and resonate with them. There is honestly something that happens when I have deep meaning for a word, I have lots of words. So I began talking with Jill and Martin yesterday over colouring in for grown ups about being mindful of words and their power to make us smile or remember or laugh. Jill and Martin who left their Minnesota life  craving sustenance for their souls and warmth for their feet were laughing about some of the words we use so frequently here like: nice, aye, arvo…. fond. We laughed about some of the ones I encountered in the US like ya’ll and how in the north words and different to the south….words! To go back and be mindful s we say a word to the association it has in our mind and understand our first response.

I could get really deep here and you can do that when I am finished my words and my membership section so you can subscribe to a word a week to colour and consider along the way. A chance to be quiet and hushed and remember what the words really mean and the feeling they bring up inside us as we do. I promise it is coming but I am learning as I go. It is my hope that I can tell you about the words for me and where it came from in my list of little useful words….and you can tell me what it meant for you.

Colouring in and sharing my art with others as I am learning to colour it in too and see a different thing every time I colour the same picture. Words only have meanings in contexts when we have build memory and understanding to go with them. They have meaning as communication when we talk, the most powerful of all communication because the non-verbal context with the speaker carries the bulk of the information we interpret; (that needs more coffee that understanding of communication) and the same is true of colouring in. My images are not graphic design for me like a sewing pattern might be or a stencil for the wall. they all have meaning and are a part of the journal of my life that is my own Journey to Beautiful. I have found so much meaning in the colouring and the quietness that goes with it. Colouring the same image many times some weeks because I can, lets me see side to meanings and understandings of the themes and motifs I didn’t intend yet there they are.

So this week I am drawing words of the small kind, many with four letters and an alphabet of meaning! with a few that make every one smile.

Happy Day

Sandy