This week my theme of the week for my 52 Cards Project is Connection—which is in no way the same as as the theme for week 4 (but ok, maybe they rhyme).

Sometimes I have to search for a theme but this week it found me. It was the first week of “normal life” for over a month (although I can’t say I believe in or even want “normal”) . But coming back from sickness and travel and as the calendar changed months, I was able to unpack, catch up on laundry, start exercising again—and free up some creative time after two months of ICAD drawings.

This is all to say that I finally had time and space to think about what I want next, creatively. I spent some time journaling and thinking and of course, art being a reflection of life, I landed on an important insight about both. Or maybe not a new learning, but a remembering of what I know to be true.

But it sure felt like that satisfying click when a puzzle piece falls into place.

Connection.

Connection underlies everything I want—everything all humans want! My obsession with my art practice is all about my desire to connect with myself—and with others through art.

Love for friends and family? The satisfaction of connecting to others with love.

The pull of nature? The spiritual necessity to connect to the wonder and mystery and all living things.

And the emotional pain we all feel in the face of the climate crisis, the pandemic and so many human-made crises in our modern world? At a fundamental level, it’s our disconnection that threatens most.

Zooming back in to my own life for a moment, I thought about how important connection is to me on all the levels (self, others, the universe) and I thought about how and where I hide—and I thought about ways I might change that.

Yep, click! Whatever and wherever we seek—it’s connection.