There’s a billboard I came across recently. It said:

And I paused. Held my breath. Let the truth of it settle in my chest like a long-lost friend. Because I know exactly what that means.

You see, there was a moment — years ago now — when I picked up a pencil not because I felt inspired, but because I was given an assignment and didn’t know how else to breathe. I didn’t call myself an artist then. I was just… surviving, merely existing. 

Holding a broken heart in trembling hands. Trying to find a way through the ache and somehow, my soul whispered, “Draw.”

That first drawing wasn’t polished. It wasn’t perfect. It was reluctant. Raw and sacred but it was a beginning.

Not of technique or composition but of healing.

It was the moment I rediscovered something ancient in me:

That creativity isn’t about proving you’re good enough

…it’s about remembering you’re alive.

---

🖼 The First Masterpiece

🐾 In 2017, I hit rock bottom. The weight of all my suppressed pain became so unbearable that I wanted to die.

Then, by God’s grace, something shifted. My brother reached out to reconcile. A friend invited me to join her for a graphic design course. Our very first assignment: create a simple drawing.

I froze, paralysed. 

“Oh crap,” I thought, “I haven’t drawn in decades. What was I thinking coming here? I can't draw!” I used to as a little girl but I hadn’t picked up a pencil since I shut down after being molested as a teenager.

But something inside me refused to give up and I found an old photograph of our dog, Trixi… and gave it a go.

To my astonishment, my drawing actually resembled the picture!

It was a small victory but it ignited something inside me.

That drawing — this drawing — marked the moment I began remembering who I was.

The girl who created. The woman who still had breath.

The artist who was always there… waiting to be welcomed back.

---

💔 From Brokenness to Beauty

I’ve come to believe this with all my heart:

If your art helped you survive, it doesn’t need applause.

It already did what it was meant to do.

It saved you.

And that, dear friend, makes it a masterpiece.

---

✨ A Gentle Invitation

If you're reading this, and you've ever made something — anything — during a hard season… I honour you. Your creativity carries courage. Your scribbles and strokes are sacred ground.

Don’t wait for the world to label it worthy.

If it helped you heal — it already is.

So today, return to your canvas. Your page. Your song. Your safe place.

Create not to impress, but to express. To breathe. To be.

Because sometimes the most powerful art isn’t the one that’s framed...

It’s the one that saved you.