Today’s heart turned into a little foodie-do.
#44 – a healthy choice!
A very healthy heart this was! I believe taking good care of yourself is also a form of (self)compassion. I can tell you: it was delicious.
A Heart A Day #44
Tag Archives: hartverwarmend
A Heart A Day #42
Today, September 21st, is International Day of Peace. My heart of today is dedicated to this wondrous day.
Peace, peace, peace…writing it down is so easy. Saying or reading it multiple times and it becomes a weird word, like all words that are said or written a lot of times in a row. But somehow, to me, with the word ‘peace’ this seems the case: the weirder it feels, the better it suits.
So many fires are burning at the moment, so much hatred and frustration and miscommunication scattered around in the world. What is peace these days? Well…peace is a general concept, but sadly not available to all. What does peace look like? I guess my country is living “in peace” at the moment, but that doesn’t mean this country is Heaven on Earth. On the contrary. The tension is high, hatred simmers underneath the surface. Lambs and lions don’t play together.
In other countries, of which we all can say that there is no peace at the moment, the concept of peace is just that: a concept. There is no time for exchanging thoughts on peace, just for surviving.
So you see, I think overall ‘peace’ is complex. But it is non the less important. Important to think about, talk about, spend time trying to create small-scale peace. Maybe in your neighbourhood. Not just for one day though. Every day. Peace definitely needs effort, from all of us.
For me peace means ‘a judgement-free world in which we live side by side, all of us equal to one another’. What does it mean to you?
A Heart A Day – Major catch-up, part one
Here’s a major catch-up, part one; hearts 24 – 32. And I realise I’ll still be behind, as today should be day #36 of my challenge. Do I have a good excuses for this delay? Well, yes. I got food poisoning… When I was finally back on track I did pick up continuing making hearts, but simply didn’t get round to posting them. Life is what happened :-) But once I’ve caught up, I’ll be determined to pick up where I was, as creating a heart a day is the best challenge! The focus I now have on self-compassion and compassion towards others is what I was looking for. It triggers my brain every day!
So here we go, 9 hearts as catch-up part one. Descriptions underneath each photo.
#24 – my ode to food poisoning, as sea fruits were the cause of it all. Took me a couple of days before I could look at shells and create this heart ;-)
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- #25 – note to self. Pictures of the sketch and final drawing combined.
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- #26 – note to self. Pictures of the sketch and final drawing combined.
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- #27 – note to self. Pictures of the sketch and final drawing combined.
#28 – you have to look closely to find the banana-candy heart. Inspired by the colours of the picture underneath which I took while baby-sitting.
#29 – KISS MORE! Inspired by a good week for kissing ;-)
#30 – my flower heart as an apology to you. Sorry I kept you waiting for more hearts…
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- #31 – accidental as I wasn’t planning on creating a heart while clearing out my house… But then I found these, which I once made. In a very Dutch-flag mood.
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- #32 – look away if you have a toe phobia! This is the real deal when it comes to ‘accidental’. Painting my nails, my eyes suddenly noticed this tiny read heart!
With love,
Tess
PS: Have you created or spotted a heart this week? Share it with me! Use #aheartaday and social media may overflow with hearts…
[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
A Heart A Day #22
Today’s heart from me to you is a cheesy one. In light of tonight’s full moon I cut a little heart out of cheese. As children’s stories say the moon is made out of cheese, it seemed logical. For the background I used a photo of the moon in its fullest glory. And they match well together, moon and cheese! What if those children’s stories are true…?
With love,
Tess
PS: Have you created or spotted a heart this week? Share it with me! Use #aheartaday and social media may overflow with hearts…
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#22
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[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
A Heart A Day #21
Day 21, three weeks and counting!
Compassion, compassion, it’s a difficult one. Today the weather was Summery. I wore a short skirt and went to the park. And I got whistled at and checked out by a guy. Not my type. And I felt like I could explode! Couldn’t he mind his own fucking business?! Other women may recognise this ;-)
And then I inhaled deeply. Exhaled and thought “compassion, that’s my goal, compassion”. I didn’t even have to analyse the why’s of this guy! I left it there and continued my walk, then found a nice spot in the sun and had a very relaxed afternoon enjoying the warm sunshine. No frustration, no anger. Just enjoying and relaxation.
It takes some practise and I won’t be faultless after today, but boy oh boy, to just let it be and not let negativity take over. JOY!
And whilst enjoying the sun I created today’s heart from little gem stones I found earlier today when I was clearing out my study. They’re old, as in childhood-memory-old! And so useful today.
With love,
Tess
PS: Have you created or spotted a heart this week? Share it with me! Use #aheartaday and social media may overflow with hearts…
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[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
A Heart A Day #19 AND #20
Oh yes, you caught me there! I missed day #19… The heart was ready, but I just didn’t find a moment to post. But that’s okay. I’m compassionate towards myself ;-) And today you’ll get two hearts from me instead. How lucky do you feel now?
Yesterday’s heart I created on a party last Saturday with the help of a friend. Shadow and light and the famous hand-made heart on a rough old factory wall. The lights create two shadows, two hearts. They look so bold!
The heart for day #20 I made from a game for children. Totally different than yesterday’s heart, but I think it’s pretty colourful and cool, too.
How is your heart doing today? Are your actions and thoughts slowly growing more compassionate? Towards yourself and others?
With love,
Tess
PS: Have you created or spotted a heart this week? Share it with me! Use #aheartaday and social media may overflow with hearts…
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#19
#20
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[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
A Heart A Day #18
Late night bloggin’. I created a heart earlier this day, but didn’t find the time to post it. But here we are.
The third quote-heart, another of my favourite quotes. Anne Frank. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. I don’t expect I’ll solve all wars in the world and find THE answer to world-peace (although I sometimes dream I do, but always wake up having lost the clue of that dream), but this phrase from the extraordinary Anne Frank always gets to me. I put it on my inspiration wall. It motivates me to follow my heart, to do my bit for the world no matter how small it may seem. It even motivated me to finally go ahead and start this little heart-project!
And I say extraordinary Anne Frank, because it simply is so. All those wise words she’s written, at such a young age. It blows my mind, time and time again.
Today’s heart from me to you I drew myself, then mixed in a picture of Anne Frank and added some dried flowers from my collection (indeed, I have a collection…). I hope this quote and heart will reach you, inspire you. Know that even the smallest gesture, the tiniest act of kindness, can make a difference for someone. So why not go on and do it?
With love,
Tess
PS: Have you created or spotted a heart this week? Share it with me! Use #aheartaday and social media may overflow with hearts…
 
[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
A Heart A Day #16
Today I did some scribbling and doodling and I spoke about self-comapssion with friends. It’s interesting to see that so many people struggle with self-compassion! Why, people? Why is this so? However, I guess it’s good to know I’m not the only one coming a long way.
When I say I’m working hard to get more compassionate towards myself, I don’t mean I sit and meditate all day. Simple things help me focus on self-compassion and self-love during the day. For example focussing on what I would love to add to this world. I would love to create “tools” that help people develope a positive picture of themselves, that help developing self-compassion; and no kidding, I’m working on a book on this specific matter! Other “tools” I’m creating are gestures that you can give to other people to show you care – my cards for example. Doing this makes my heart skip and puts a smile on my face the moment I think about it. I can be my authentic self and that feels good! I love that feeling and slowly my self-love grows. Baby steps, but day by day it gets stronger.
Whilst scribling and doodling today I created a heart with one of my favourite quotes. Be the change you want to see in the world. From Gandhi. Speaking of meditation, writing a quote about 20 times is meditative! I added a picture of planet earth, for the extra drama ;-)
What change do you want to see in the world? And what steps are you taking towards it?
With love,
Tess
PS: Have you created or spotted a heart this week? Share it with me! Use #aheartaday and social media may overflow with hearts…
[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
A Heart A Day #14
Hello again!
Heart number 14 is ready for you. This time created with my PicsArt app. I used a photo of an artwork by my friend, artist Mirjam Bakker (the heart made out of cutlery. Do check out her other work too, it’s fantastic!) and mixed in an image I used in one of my moodboards. The result below, dreamy, full of love. And a little bit of lust, too…
My head was filled with thoughts on compassion today. How about your head? I’m gonna dig a little deeper into a subject that kept popping up: what about compassion and yet not liking someone or, finding someone annoying? Later more on that ;-)
With love,
Tess
[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
A Heart A Day #13
Day 13, it’s day 13! And to tell you the truth, I’m a wee bit proud of myself. I’m prone to lose focus quickly. This results in me not finishing things, ideas, the dishes – just some examples ;-)
But my hearts keep calling me – ideas for new ones keep popping up. Every day I look forward to creating a new heart for myself and whoever is reading these blogs. And I find that focussing on the subject (self)compassion, makes more compassionate; I almost automatically become more aware, ask myself questions, question my behavior. In the running-up to A Heart A Day, I’d collected so many reasons not to start, telling myself I’d fail, wouldn’t be able to create something beautiful, wouldn’t finish it, etc. The typical daily prayer. But after months of brewing, contemplating and creating some hearts I told myself I would start anyway, give it time and be kind to myself no matter what the outcome. And time is of the essence here: allowing yourself time to try your hand at new things, allowing yourself time to practise self-compassion. Most things don’t change overnight, you know! That’s how I always hope it will be, but reality proves different. So I’ve given myself time this time ’round and – as if by magic – I’v been posting a heart a day now for 13 days without complaining or thinking of quitting.
So yeah, today’s heart. It is a bit see-through, difficult to spot, as so is practise – in the beginning you might not notice results or change. Same for compassion. It needs practise. Warm-hearted practise. I’ve a fairly compassionate character, but I wanna up my standard especially on the self-compassion side of things. That needs repetition. And a lot of love! The hearts help me focus on my goals. Every day. And awaken my thoughts on compassion. Every day. Slowly. And that’s perfectly fine.
Take your time.
With love,
Tess
P.S: can you spot the second heart in the picture below?
[I love love and I love hearts! But oh, this world needs more visible love. So let’s change that, step by step. Away with pessimism. Away with hate. Let’s fill this world with love. And hearts! To show compassion towards each other, towards the planet, towards ourselves. It proves to be difficult for so many of us. But instead of judging it’s more meaningful to show love, to respond with love, to act out of love. Say it with hearts.
So I’m sharing A Heart A Day. Every day I will draw, stitch, paint or otherwise create a heart and post it on this blog. Will you help me make love and hearts spread like a contagious but healthy disease?]
Confetti In Your Face 