haircut and the fortune cookie

haircut, journal page

Against my better judgement, I tend to be superstitious. Back in February I had eaten at an asian restaurant and received a fortune cookie. I love opening these little origami-shaped cookies to see what chance I have at a good fortune. However, that particular week offered some challenging questions in my life, and as silly as it may sound, I didn't have the courage to risk opening that little fortune cookie.

I brought it home and it sat on my art table for weeks. At the same time, I started thinking about cutting my hair. It had grown quite long, just like I had hoped, but I was craving change. Perhaps it was more about wanting to have some symbolic control of my life when outside forces were threatening to take away that control.

So I waited and thought about whether or not I really wanted to cut my hair. Then one night as I was getting ready to go to sleep, I studied my long strands of hair and decided: I no longer wanted them. I grabbed my husband's scissors that he uses to cut his beard, and chop ... chop ... gone. It felt good.

The above pencil sketch is based on a vintage photo of a young girl. I then filled in the figure drawing with acrylics and embellished the lower page with leaf shapes from my cork stamps.

This week your expectations are reasonable and should be met.

The day I worked on this journal page, I decided to open that fortune cookie. Based on certain decisions, a sense of hope had come back into my life and I was ready for whatever might come my way. It turned out to be perfect timing for that fortune.