Black woman sitting cross-legged drawing outdoors
Topic:

When we go through difficult times, it can be helpful to unplug from the rhythms we’re normally used to and introduce some self-reflection. We’ve been demonstrating this more and more thoroughly in our series on practices that tie us closer to the sacred. If you’ve not had a chance to try them out yet, we invite you to review the list.

But in the meantime, this one from Bradford Grant, professor of architecture at Howard University, helps us appreciate the moment and the world around us through drawing. For those of you who prefer writing, or simply observing, alter the practice to fit your favored form of beholding what is sacred to you.

"I have been comforted by plainly and closely observing (seeing) and then drawing (sketching) in my sketchbook the immediate world around me or, as I call it, 'front porch drawing.' Skill, talent or training is not necessary, you simply sketch what you see without judgment of what you see or what you draw. It has focused me and allows me a means of beholding my immediate environment."

Bradford Grant, once an advisor for the Fetzer Institute, has also served as an Instagram-artist-in-residence for the National Portrait Gallery.