Document Life Project- Challenge 1/1

 The idea is to.....well document life really. Whether you want to do that in a planner, or a dairy. There are prompts once a week but other than it is what you make it.  You can check it our righhhhhtt HERE!

The prompt for the first week was-

January 1 Challenge - photograph, sketch, paint or incorporate your front door.

As the door opens on our new year, we all share the bond of having an entry into our home,  our lives, ourselves.

Through the artistic medium of your choice, show us a bit of where you live in the symbol of your door, entryway or porch. Think a bit about how you can use your door to express your personality, your life, what you value.

                                                                                                                                                                 

I decided to do what I love most, cut paper. I had an idea in mind. I don't know if it transferred well over to paper, but I get it and thats all that matters.

Here is my door. A lovely house from a vintage greeting card. Isn't it just the ideal of  the perfect house?  For many of us a dream of what adult life would be. White picket fence, cute cottage scene with 2.4 children and a loving husband (or wife depending on how you swing). I might have been raised in the 80's but this dream was still alive and well for many of us. 

And that's ok. I even believe a life can have the perfect house whether its a true house or just the idea of a perfect house (I didn't care about the house per se but I really wanted the loving husband and 2 children). I got my wish in the loving husband and while I had one child he filled the spot of fifty children. He was my dream and absolutely everything you would want in a son.

But there are dark days and grey days and a whole lot of in between. I've learned as I grow older that the beautiful house needs the occasional termites. Maybe someone knocks down your white picket fence or sometimes true tragedy strikes. Thats why in my house the window is black when you look in and there is someone looming behind my door. I firmly believe light needs dark and a hill needs a valley. They are intertwined. When we accept this, we learn to embrace both parts of life. 

My life has been based on dark and light. My personality is genetically disposed to swing in one direction or the other. I work very hard to find the middle ground but in doing so I've learned its also OK to work through the extreme's. When you face the dark sometimes you can even find joy there. My house holds what we all must face.

 Its a common practice for new initiate buddhist monks to be told to mediate on death until it is no longer an issue for them.  Why? Simply put, its a good thing. Facing the worst that can happen can open you up to face the best that can happen. 

Welcome 2014. I see your dark and I'm offering up my light. Lets learn to work together.