A picture of a stone path with grass on either side. On the path are painted the following two phrases:
Take Care and Thought when making Choices
Always Question until you have found the Right Path
Oil on canvas. A view from behind of a naked person walking towards an open door (one of several in a wall). Through these doors can be seen further doors and more beyond them.
Hessel, Katy (@thegreatwomenartists) (2024b) “As 2025 approaches, I'm thinking about Dorothea Tanning, and in particular her painting "Birthday" (1942 – image 1)...” [Instagram] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/DECl8YnILOU/?img_index=1 (Accessed: 26th December 2024).
Tanning, Dorothea (1942) Birthday [Oil on canvas]. Philadelphia Museum of Art. See: https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/93232
Imagine a piece of art that would be perfect to have in front of you when meditating.
The scene we have been brought up to avoid and not think about: the discomfort, pain and mess of giving birth in a stable.
Create a Christmas scene in your mind: your favourite of all time, perhaps, or a fantasy, or future, you would like to see, a landscape, a city scene, an activity, a food still life, anything or everything you consider to be Christmas, or Christmassy.
Journey with your teenage self on your shoulder.
How would they see the world now?
What would they think of your life?
What would you say to them?
Would they listen to you?
What might they say to you?
Would you listen?
What would happen?
Maybe retrace a journey your teenage self often did.
How have things changed?
How do you like the changes?
How would your teenage self like them?
How did you see the route back then?
How do you see it now?
Where were you going then?
Where are you going now?
Or reflect on an event from those years.
How did it affect you?
How did it change you?
What would you have said to your teenage self in its aftermath that no one said to you at the time?
Smith, Zadie (2023) The Fall of My Teenage Self. Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/11/27/the-fall-of-my-teen-age-self (Accessed: 23rd November 2023).
Imagine a conversation with your teenage self - what would you say to them?
Hold on.
