This post is a transcription of the Starting with a Song Podcast, S3Ep7: Week Six of #The100DayProject

I had a thought on Day 40: 10 more days and I’ll be halfway through at Day 50 and then I just do all this over again. No big deal! I really can’t believe how fast time has flown. So far, this year’s 100-day Project has felt fun, free, and whimsical and I’m hoping we can keep this upward trajectory rolling into the second half.

This week, I dabbled more in digital art than anything! I digitally painted some red-capped toadstools on Sunday, made a quick animated doodle of me reading books in Adobe Fresco on Monday, and created another animated illustration in Fresco on Tuesday to commemorate the 8th birthday of CreativeMornings Nashville.

I’m still enjoying tangible supplies, but technology and how far it’s come, is incredible. I can use my iPad to utilize oil and watercolor paints with charcoal and ink on the same piece leaving no mess to clean up in my space (or on my hands) afterward. Tough to beat.

#100DaysofSONG

Using the acronym S. O. N. G. to add a little fun and help sum up the week:

S – Singing

I have listened to quite the mix this week! I needed some good pump-up energy music to focus on work and my YouTube Music library delivered with a queue including Lizzo, OneRepublic, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga – all the good beats.

O – Observation

Last night I spent time with three of my girlfriends that I hadn’t seen in several weeks. Our conversation turned to parables and foundations – like building a house on sinking sand vs solid ground or scattering seed on stone where it doesn’t root, cracks in the road where it grows, but eventually withers and dies, or on good soil where it produces much fruit.

It made me think about cultivating “good soil” in our lives and what that looks like when we have families and mile-long to do lists. 

I wrote down these questions this morning: 

• Who are the voices we’re listening to?
• How are we investing our time?
• What are we prioritizing?

I’m finding that the more we cultivate and curate the voices around us and prioritize how we spend our time often dictates the strength of the foundation in our daily walk.

N – Noteworthy

I typically eat two eggs for breakfast… because, protein. My husband and I have found these eggs we love at Kroger that are actually by themselves near the produce on the opposite end of the store from the other eggs. I don’t know what sense that makes, but here they are. They’re brought in from a farm in Kentucky so they’re still considered “local.” The yolks are a bright almost orange kind of yellow and in the past week I’ve cracked two of them that contained double yolks.

Why do double yolks make us feel like we’ve won the lottery? I was so excited I yelled down the hall at my husband about it. His response (also yelling from down the hall) “you’ve got to be yolking!” Men… am I right?

Silly me decided to look up double yolks and what people believe it to mean – some good luck, some the literal birth of twins (which I can guarantee won’t be happening any time soon, ha)

I’m not superstitious, but I think I’m just going to believe that new beginnings are around the corner. Ann Voskamp just released a new book called Waymaker and in it she says this:

“Nothing is lost in the waiting process, because all waiting is a growth process. Waiting is gestating a greater grace. Maybe life has no waiting rooms – life only has labor and delivery rooms.

All our waiting rooms are actually birthing rooms, and what feels like the contracting of our plans can be the birthing of greater purposes.

Waiting is the sacrament of the tender surrender, and this is the art of a soul growing large. Every waiting moment is heavy with the weight of glory, and this waiting midwifes a fuller life.”

—Ann Voskamp, Waymaker

G – Gratitude

Six years ago, I randomly came across an event for an arts organization. What’s better than a party for a cause? The tickets were reasonable and included all the things you’d expect for a good time, so my husband and I went. 

There was a woman — one of the artists — who stepped up to the mic to tell her story. She was my age but our lives were very different. As a victim of trafficking and abuse, she walked over state lines and found herself in Nashville where she experienced housing insecurity. As part of this organization now, she continues utilizing art as a tool to heal her trauma and move forward in life. 

This is when we fell in love with Poverty & the Arts, now newly rebranded as Daybreak Arts. In that moment, I realized that although we have nothing in common when it comes to our circumstances, we can still find a common ground as two artists talking to each other about art. 

Isn’t that how it should be with everyone? If nothing else, we all have humanity in common!

Tomorrow is Daybreak Arts’ annual fundraising gala! It will be the sixth time we’ve attended and the fifth time my company has been a sponsor. I’m super grateful for the passion their team has for the important work they’re doing in our community and beyond. Nashville is a better place because of them.

You can read more about them online (or even buy a $25 virtual gala ticket!) at daybreakarts.org.

Thanks for taking the time to listen today! Are you participating in #The100DayProject? I’d love to hear about it! You can connect with me and follow along with me on Instagram at @artisticamanda. 

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Starting with a Song podcast for stories and updates, too.

Till next time, always keep singing.