In my excitement to do the daily work in my sketchbook, I can’t overlook what I have already completed. There is a luxury to the right hand page. A free flowing of gorgeous oil paints. It’s easy to get lost in it, without worry or care. But it’s only when they are dry, that I am able to add to the left. 

In my eagerness to create, I have remain aware of the other page. There are still many options — pencils, pens, fast drying acrylics — all will allow me the joy of art making, without hurting previous work. I look at the completed pages. Birds and humans. Those that have become. Aware of this, I know I must never be careless. I hope I’m doing the same in real life. With real life. 

They make doctors take an oath, “first do no harm.” (Perhaps we should all have to.) Oh, I understand, we get excited in all of our progress and movement. And it is so simple to move ahead without regard. But I, we, could take more care. Just being aware of the other page, the other human. We can keep moving forward and still enjoy, still create, without doing damage. Without doing harm. I remind myself daily, signing it on the page, taking the oath in my heart.