Nice Moments Embellished

I got some good photos recently during some nice, relaxing, sunny moments, and I let them sit in a folder for a while until I could figure out some way to use them or present them. I looked through them some time later and I thought "I could try drawing on these and making them look like they're in a cute little scrapbook". So I did that thing.

I feel like one of the best things ever for my mental health has been to really notice little moments and nice, small things in my life, because if I keep noticing those then life has a continuous narrative of niceness framed by all these things. I know all the "listen to a nice song" "take a luxurious bath" "buy yourself flowers" positivity advice can be super grating when it feels like it's just "think nice thoughts and be happy and everything is lovely" but I find a lot of that sort of encouragement genuinely really helpful, personally. Obviously context is relevant for stuff like that.

I'm definitely cheered up a lot by nature and light and warmth, so it's nice to have those things. I'm also really cheered and inspired by tactility (soft things, warm things, etc) and making my own small memories and creative things. They keep me in my present moment and feeling accomplished and like I am fundamentally myself and capable of doing and feeling and seeing lots of good things. It's good.

Drawing on pictures like this feels like a way of making them even more mine, and even more me. But mostly it collects them and it tells a story, and it's the story I want my life to be. The story of sunlight and wispy hair and shadows and playing and saying hello to animals and being cosy.

I had fun. We had fun. The world is fun.