Voice

Lovelies,

You may have noticed a change in my tone the past half year or so. Of course I still call you my lovelies as per always. But maybe my writing to you is a bit more candid or reflective or geeky or poetic? Which is to say... a bit more me.

I don't know exactly why except that I woke up one Newsletter morning with a new sense of what I'm up to here. It means so much to me that you have an interest in what I create each month. Even more that you'd care to walk a couple minutes behind the scenes with me and my paintbrush. I am compelled to honor that with all the real that I can.

I do suspect it has something to do with the cauldron of the past two years. You don't need me to list everything this world has faced but of course now it includes the atrocity of war in Ukraine. On a personal level I feel so much of the "not quite me" has been burned out of my life. From what I'm making to how I spend my time to my deepest driving desires to, yes, my voice.

I remember taking a creative writing class when I was 18. It was maybe the first time I undertook to express AS MYSELF. I discovered that the hardest voice of all to assume was my own. There are so many ways I have yet to arrive in this lifetime, but I am comforted to know that my voice is now where I want it to be, at my fingertips.

With all my love,

Rachel