The daily card, week 38

In the interest of full transparency, I will confess: the cards for Saturday and Sunday were made after the fact (like, on Monday and Tuesday). If a card needs to dry, sometimes I'll wait until the next day before applying finishing touches. But it's been a while since I flat-out haven't made a card - the only other times have been when I'm literally traveling all day long, and even then I end up doing it ahead of time. On Saturday, I ended up crashing at a friend's house after an all-day beer olympics birthday party and a late night catching up around the fire. And then the festivities continued on Sunday and I was too beat to make a card. Both days, I came up with an idea for a card that I promised to execute later and called it good enough. Good to remember that the point of this project is to encourage creativity, not to squeeze it so tightly that it gets crushed. 

Commemorated this week: the pope visiting, learning the phrase "Netflix and chill," watching Wild, and playing a Lovecraftian board game with friends. It was a good week.

As a creative challenge, I am decorating a playing card every day in 2015. More context on this project is here and you can see all past card posts here.

Fantastic news

I remember waking up in February 2013 to the news - delivered by Austin's daily NPR fix - that a leading Tunisian opposition activist had been (presumably) assassinated, and worrying what that would mean for the country's transition. Since then, I've woken up a few more times to bad news out of Tunisia - when the second politician was killed in July 2013 and then, this year, to the terrorist attacks on Bardo and Sousse. So I was thrilled to learn when I woke up Friday, in my half-awake Facebook-scrolling state, that the National Dialogue Quartet had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

There's lots more information on the Nobel site (though they overstate it when they suggest that Tunisia had been on the brink of civil war). But in short, the two assassinations resulted in political tensions and a stalemate that threatened to derail the transition process in summer 2013. A Quartet of civil society organizations stepped in to negotiate a path forward, leading to the passage of a new constitution and historic elections last fall.

This Nobel feels huge. It's tremendous recognition not just for the leaders who negotiated the deal, but for so many Tunisians who have worked so hard over the past few years to make the transition succeed - and who have weathered the challenges it has meant for the country's economy and security situation. I think it's significant that the award recognizes civil society actors rather than elected politicians. The transition is far from over, and there have been some bumps - most recently, the state of emergency following the Sousse attack - but I am hopeful that regardless of what political leaders do, the country's strong civil society will continue to safeguard the process.

The Nobel doesn't necessarily change anything on the ground. The challenges are still challenging. But it does signal to the international community that we should not give up on Tunisia. In the wake of the headlines about the tragic deaths on the beach in Sousse, I'm hopeful that the Nobel will refocus positive attention on the country - and remind us that there is still so much reason for optimism.

The daily card, week 37: Q4 edition

After our trip to California, my new plan is to move out there and start a line of Central Coast-themed letterpress greeting cards. The hitch is I'm pretty sure a bunch of people are doing that pretty well already and that the September 16 card is my only design so far. September 15 features a quote from Crystal Moody. This week also features the first naked card I've done... both one of my lazier and more brilliant moves. Word to the wise, this is what happens when you do your crafting late at night after too many beers.

Now that we've rounded the bend of October 1, we're in the last quarter of 2015. (When will I get used to how quickly the years go nowadays??) I keep thinking about trusting the process. When I started writing this post, that felt like a totally new idea until I remembered I'd said the exact same thing at the end of the first quarter. Between then and now, I feel like the habit has become more established and it's easier to come up with new ideas. Though there are still days where it's like, "you mean I have to do this again? I just did this yesterday!" But then again I have the same reaction to doing laundry and grocery shopping and exercising.

I've been thinking about trusting the process in other areas of my life too, as I try to figure out how best to move forward in my career and life. About trusting that if I take the next step, the step after that will reveal itself to me - or at least be clearer, if not magically delivered on a silver platter. You just have to chip away at what's in front of you, not knowing exactly what you'll be doing tomorrow or the day after.

At the same time, the daily card challenge hasn't magically made me better at tackling other projects one day at a time... even when I'm faced with a big binder of evidence of the cool stuff that can result when you do just that. Just like Bar Method didn't magically make me more confident and effective at work, or like how I doubt that cleaning my closet would give me the boost to change careers like Kon Mari believers sometimes say. I guess I'd like to think it would carry over more than it does... but it has reminded me that I can set and achieve goals and keep commitments to myself. I just have to work on building that discipline - and establishing good systems and processes to support it - bit by bit in each area of my life.

As a creative challenge, I am decorating a playing card every day in 2015. More context on this project is here and you can see all past card posts here.