it’s been a wild couple of days, weeks, months, year.

in april, at the initial height of the pandemic, i started drawing again … with my mom. i started calling this bird therapy … and all of this really started over a year ago.

last year, i had one of the most meaningful moments of my life because of day-light savings so how perfect that 12 months later my mom and i chose to draw the sun the very same week.

here’s what happened in 2019:

on monday november 3, i sprung out of bed because of the extra hour gained, took some photos and wrote the below into my phone to later be posted on instagram.

in the aftermath, i started calling my mom weekly on mondays. i set an alarm on my phone for noon and would go for a walk or close the door to my office. it finally hit me that we needed to persistently face the future together if there was any chance they would move into the stone house.

  
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 If you are in need of #goodvibes + a reminder why #grandparents matter while #socialdistancing ... Here’s a #birdstorytime 
 
A post shared by  an (u̶n̶)lucky bird (@robin_alexa) on Mar 22, 2020 at 11:39am PDT

“Keep your head up. Keep your heart strong.”

in late november of 2019, my mom told me she loved me on the phone unprompted – for the first time i could remember. and don’t get me wrong, i knew she loved me all along but it wasn’t something we easily said – she easily said.

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here’s what happened in 2020:

i posted the above in march and was trying to stay centered on what really mattered as it felt like the world was crumbling around us.

i started sketching daily with my mom april 22, 2020:

• 6 weeks after the pandemic sent us all home to work.
• 3 weeks after we launched one of the most challenging projects of my career in the most extreme and stressful circumstances.
• 2 weeks after half of my team was furloughed.
  

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on day 3, we drew the christmas cactus in my mom’s house (her idea) and the same day my bro-in-law sent me a picture of the christmas cactus in mand’s house.

fast-forward to november 4, 2020… we sat down to draw the sun the day after the election. a very welcome distraction from the lingering results that at first were devastating.

i knew drawing would make me feel better.

i knew talking to my mom would help, too.

i was defeated and exhausted thinking about how millions americans still ACTIVELY didn’t care about the same things i did (racism and social justice.)

everything came full circle when she immediately commented on the christmas cactus exploding behind me … it’s amazing how a single plant has come to represent so much.

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and then we drew the sun, talked about the shape of clouds and it was wonderful. you can read about it on my instagram.

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here’s the three things that stood out…

1. this was the first time i didn’t draw exactly what was in front of me. it felt good to go beyond what I could literally see with all that’s happened this week during #election2020
2. while i wanted to focus on the sun, my mom drew mostly clouds. to be fair, they are one of her favorite things to sketch and she showed me her technique, but i also thought of the sub-conscious symbolism of focusing on sunshine vs. only seeing clouds.
3. we ended our call by talking about a quote from James M. Berrie, the playwright who wrote peter pan. his life inspired one of my favorite movies: Finding Neverland

i admire my mom’s ability to recall names and specifics – a gift i don’t have.

while finalizing this blog post, it was announced that we will have a new president. the first woman in history will be vice president of the united states — and she represents so many of us in special and unique ways.

how fitting.

for the first time in a long time…

i see daylight.