2020, that’s it!

No, I’m kidding. There is so much more to say about this particular time in life. One could complain, one could quit, or one could just be numb to all of it, BUT instead, I encourage you to dig deep and find the sweet spot of gratitude. What I have implemented before this year, was a “grateful jar”. It’s simply a mason jar that sits on my desk and I fill it with small notes of things that I am grateful for. Easy enough right? LOL

If I know one thing, it’s that you can be in the most extravagant of places, just beautiful, flat out pleasing to the eye and be absolutely miserable. WONK WONK. WONK. Sometimes a nice, pristine, well-designed space can feel sterile or cold all because there is no meaning/reasoning, warmth, or peace within the person standing in the space.

As a designer, although I love the aesthetic and the visual order of design, sometimes you have to go beyond the aesthetic to bring your surroundings to life. That’s how you really create warmth in a space, make it home, you know?

That’s where the “grateful jar” comes in. You need something in your space that makes you reflective, that reminds you of the essence of you, that makes you present. And no, the jar is not an original idea. You can find several variations of this online from a jar, to just journaling, to planting, etc. The point is to have something in your space to document your self-reflection. I’ll have a thought, sometimes positive and sometimes negative. And this thought ends up leading me to gratitude because I’ll remember a time when I experienced worse or a time when I prayed for the thing that just manifested. Either way, it should circle around to gratitude. So from there, I write it down and put it in the jar as notes of reflection and thanksgiving to God for whatever He brought me through at the time.

I truly believe in creating healing spaces, joy spaces, purifying spaces, reflective spaces, not just a pretty room for the naked eye (although there is nothing wrong with that). All I’m saying is keep creating, but don’t escape from being spiritually present in the spaces that you take up in the physical world.