Today, as I was carrying so much on a personal level, I opened the sketchbook and began to contemplate what I might draw, how I might re-center myself. I was drawn to an old safety razor sitting on my drawing table that was a part of my dad's things after he had passed on. It's stamped with the name "Ever-Ready" and a patent from 1912. As I picked it up I began to reflect on the men in my family, all the men over the years that this might've belonged to, and how I'd love to ask for my dad's advice, right about now. And as I began to draw a simplified version of the sweet patterns in the handle, I was fully and prayerfully present right in that moment, and have been much more so throughout the day.

You might wonder, with everything going on in our lives and in our world, how can drawing something like this ancient safety razor ever help. That's such a great question? And here's how it helps: when I take the time to center, to actually be present in a moment, that's the only time I'm available to actually help anyone, including myself. That's the only time I'm able to bring peace to a conflict or hope to the loneliness, or love and compassion to the hurting. It's when I'm centered and experiencing the love of my Creator for myself that I'm able to invite others into the same thing.