Happy New Year!

At this point I’m sure that you expect a resolution or something, but I don’t have one and I suppose you could say that this year’s resolution for me would be not to. Instead I am embracing my grATTITUDE! All I want this year is to drop all of the negative things in my life and I encourage you to do so too. For too long I’ve felt as if there was something more to desire from life, something that you have to work towards. Not as inspiring as a goal, but much more minuscule in respect to the things that should matter to us.

Which is gratitude, be grateful for what you have not wishful for what you don’t. I can’t help but think of what I see in the world daily. People that are consumers, all they do is consume. I’m just as guilty so I’m not passing blame, but rather reflecting on the way we are conditioned. As we grow we are nurtured and loved, (or at least we don’t know any different whether or not we actually are) given what we need to survive and nothing more. Then something magically happens when we go off to school, or start interacting with the other silly humans — we see things we don’t have and they become something we desire. That desire is where things get weird and something inside of us changes, our whole mindset was perfectly content with what we had, and now we want more.

Why do we want it though? We were going about our lives without it just fine until we saw it being enjoyed by others. That materialistic mindset is associated with our happiness and when someone else has or does something we want or want to do we no longer feel as happy as we were. As we age we become mostly responsible adults, we work for compensation and that is where it can go wrong. I remember my parents telling me that I didn’t need something and occasionally they’d cave and buy it for me only for it to be played with or used for a month and then tossed to the side to be forgotten about. Heh, I’ve even done it with my own minions and it is real disappointing to have to spend hard earned dough on something that ends up being donated or broken and tossed out a week later.

Some of us are worse than others with this and on the worst end of the spectrum we end up playing “keeping up with the Joneses” they do have the latest and greatest blah blah blah so I need it too so I don’t look bad, right? Couldn’t be farther from the truth, I’ve had all I’ve needed for years, yet something inside me, that brainwashed consumption portion of my brain said that I needed more. So this year I’m trying something different. I will be leaving that portion of my brain in 2019, saying good-bye to it and moving on without it. I am making a commitment to myself that I will be happy with myself and my  family no matter what, regardless of what I do or do not have or get. As long as I have them I will be happy and grateful everyday that I do. The more I think about this the happier I feel, as if atlas put the world down for a moment to take a breather.

This week’s practice is the minuscule letter “r” executed using the first, second and third Spencerian principles. It is executed starting at the baseline with the second principle the right curve up to and past the x-height by 1/4 space, with a small downward stroke make the “shoulder” of the r using the third principle the left curve down and to the right another 1/4 space do not make a loop, finish up following the stroke similar to the minuscule letter “i” with the first principle the straight line on the 52° main slant towards the baseline, slight curve to the right into the second principle the right curve and voila. Try as I might I simply cannot simplify the instructions. Stroke count for this one would be 2, 3, 1, 2, hopefully when you look at the image above and follow the count it makes more sense. If not let me know perhaps I can shoot you over a video example on Instagram. Happy practicing.