Day 5- Finding Joy in the Shadows

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Welcome to DAY FIVE of our new 30-day project where we make something with our hands every day to improve our mental health. We all realize that creativity heals...it's time to put that knowledge into action.

These episodes will exist here, marked with the days numbered, in order for you to follow along at any speed that you like. Miss a day? Doesn't matter. Just pick up right where you left off and keep making things. These episodes will give us all some accountability, but if you need more, pair up with a partner. It really does help!

Join our creative community by making something today, whether it's for five minutes or several hours—your brain will thank you. Let's do this thing together and turn all of this sh*t into something beautiful!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 0 (00:01):
When you finally realize that joy is less
firework, more firefly, lessorchestra, more birdsong, she
will come back much more often.
For joy will not fight with thefast pace of this life.
She's not in the shiny or thenew.
Joy breathes in the basicshimmers in the simple.
Joy breathes in the basicshimmers in the simple and

(00:24):
dallies in the daily to and fro.
Joy has been beckoning you formany a year, my friend.
You are just too busy doing tosee.
The very next time joy wrapsher quiet warmth around you as
the garden embraces your wearybody in its wildness, tip her a
nod.
Grace is your weary body in itswildness.

(00:44):
Tip her a nod.
You cannot force her to stay,but if you are a gracious host,
joy comes back.
By Donna Ashworth.
Years ago I would have heardthat poem and not understood it
at all.
Some people are bornunderstanding that, some people
work towards that.
Some people never learn it, butI really love that poem.

(01:08):
After watching Donna read thaton a video some time ago, I
bought this whole book of poetrythat it was from.
The book is called GrowingBrave by Donna Ashworth.
I highly recommend it.
For today's project, I'm goingto go out on a walk during a

(01:28):
time with strong shadows, andI'm just going to use my cheap
little Ektar H35 camera and playwith some Ilford black and
white film.
I'm just going to photographshadows and light in whatever
form I can, outside, in nature,no settings to mess with,
nothing to set up with thecamera, just stick the film in,

(01:51):
go out, find some shadows,notice it, notice the light,
notice the shadows, get out ofmy head for a while and enjoy
being in nature and then lookforward to that day when I get
to develop it and see what comesout.
The stakes are super low.
It's just about getting out ofyour head, enjoying the outdoors

(02:14):
, sunshine, fresh air, light,shadows, getting creative and
looking for things that youdon't normally see.
You can actually do this withyour iPhone if you don't have a
camera of any type or if youjust want to make it super easy
and not even worry aboutdeveloping later.
I just find that to besomething to look forward to.

(02:36):
This is just yet another ideaof getting out of your head,
doing something creative, makinga little art for yourself, and
it doesn't have to be foranybody but you.
I believe this is day five ofthe project, if I'm publishing
these in the correct order,which I hope I do.
I'm trying to stay organized,but whatever day it is, it

(03:00):
doesn't matter.
If you skip a day, it doesn'tmatter.
I think I'm going to onlypublish these four days a week,
just maybe Monday throughThursday, so that you can catch
up or take some days off orwhatever it may be.
But have some fun.
Let loose, do something with nostakes and just pure floating

(03:23):
in the wind.
Let go See where it takes youand stay curious.
No stakes and just purefloating in the wind.
Let go see where it takes youand stay curious.