I find that my stress levels drop dramatically if I take the time to draw carefully from nature...I posted this originally in our Sketching in Nature blog in the summer of 2009, when we were going through a very stressful period indeed, with Joseph's mother in the last stages of dementia. Long phone calls, both from her and from his sister happened several times a day, always with the upset of the day. I found that my journal was my best friend (after Joseph!) during that period...as calming as meditation.
Of course if you've been a longtime reader of this blog, you know about the fantasy journal I kept during that period, too! Journaling and humor are terrific tools for handling life's challenges!
I've always loved cicadas--their sounds, their abandoned amber husks, the lacy wings of the adults. This page even has a time-lapse video of an emergent cicada--and this one tells some interesting facts about the noisy summer creature.
