What is one of the first things you remember preparing for yourself?
It doesn’t have to be something you made as a little kid. Maybe you were five. Maybe fifteen. Maybe twenty-five. Maybe you didn’t cook anything for yourself until much later.
Think of something you prepared more than once.
Now don’t write down the recipe.
Imagine yourself making it.
And as the memory unfolds, sketch it.
That’s what I mean by sketchful.
Mindful is being aware of what is happening in your mind.
Sketchful is allowing what is happening in your mind to become a sketch as it unfolds.
For me, one of the first things I remember preparing for myself was French fries.
I take a potato.
As I say that, I sketch a simple potato.
I peel it.
I draw a few loose lines coming away from the potato—the peel.
I cut it.
A few simple strokes become the pieces of potato.
I put them into the pan.
The pan might be nothing more than a circle with a handle. A few little ripples inside suggest the hot oil.
I turn the potatoes over.
A few more marks.
Then I put them into a paper bag.
I sprinkle salt into the bag.
I shake it.
And finally, beside the fries, there is a little dish of ketchup—a circle inside another circle, with a bit of shading to suggest what’s inside.
That’s the whole recipe.
But I didn’t write it down.
I sketched it as I remembered it.
The drawing followed the narrative.
The narrative followed the memory.
And the memory became something I could see.
That’s what interests me about sketching.
The sketch doesn’t have to be a picture of the thing.
It can be a picture of what is happening in your experience.
You can speak it.
You can think it.
You can sketch it.
And the sketch can keep moving along with the experience.
Perhaps that is another way of being mindful.
Not just noticing what is in your mind—
but letting your hand give it a form.
Mindful.
Sketchful.
Join me on Zoom Mondays for a guided Sketchful experience
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Spiritual Gravity 