Painted Poems by Julie Julie

Painted Poems by Julie Julie Artist. Poet. Storyteller. Rebuilding a life one fifteen minutes at a time. Finding beauty in ordinary moments and proving it’s never too late to begin again.

03/10/2026

Painting Today

Today I let the watercolor find its way,
softly across the paper, unhurried and free,
each little brushstroke becoming a place
where my mind could finally breathe with me.

There was no need to make it perfect,
only to follow where the painting led,
to watch something quiet take its shape
and leave a little more peace in my head.

Perhaps this is what painting gives me,
a way to heal without needing to explain,
a little beauty made with my own hands,
turning stillness into something again.

Sober October.I’ve done Dry January. I’ve taken a month off before fiesta. I’ve taken breaks simply because I didn’t wan...
27/09/2026

Sober October.

I’ve done Dry January. I’ve taken a month off before fiesta. I’ve taken breaks simply because I didn’t want to drink for a while, and I’ve done it before wellness retreats and holidays.

It’s something I choose to do from time to time for me, as a reset.

Living retired in a small Spanish village, there’s definitely a drinking culture. The bar is where people meet, catch up, laugh, put the world to rights and somehow turn one drink into an entire afternoon.

And sometimes, if I’m honest, a drink helps me feel included. It can take the edge off my insecurities, help me relax and make it easier to just join in with whatever is happening around me.

I enjoy that side of village life. I enjoy the people, the laughter and the feeling of being part of things.

But every now and then, I like to step away from it for a while.

So Sober October is simply my next intentional reset.

Not a statement. Just something I’m choosing to do for myself.

A little pause. A little reset. A chance to see how I feel after giving myself some time without alcohol.

And in a small village, there’s still plenty of laughter, plenty of people and absolutely no shortage of drama.

So if you fancy giving yourself a little reset too, come and join me for October.

No rules, no pressure, just a month to see what happens.

I didn’t create this list, but I’ve fallen a little bit in love with it.I’ve been using it on my quiet days at home, and...
27/09/2026

I didn’t create this list,
but I’ve fallen a little bit in love with it.

I’ve been using it on my quiet days at home, and somehow those ordinary little hours have started feeling very different. Less drifting, more choosing. A little more intention, a little more joy, and considerably less wandering into the kitchen for the 14th time wondering why I’m there.

Sometimes it really is the smallest things that shift the whole mood of a day.

So I thought I’d share it, because perhaps someone else needs a little gentle nudge toward themselves too.

The picture is just a screenshot, but if anyone wants it, I can send it to you as a PDF just DM me

Is it a Lesson or a BlessingPerhaps that is the questionwe should askwhen something leaves us changed:Was it a lesson,or...
26/09/2026

Is it a Lesson or a Blessing

Perhaps that is the question
we should ask
when something leaves us changed:

Was it a lesson,
or was it a blessing?

If it was a blessing,
cherish it.

Hold it gently
for all the beauty
it brought into your life.

If it was a lesson,
learn from it.

Let it sharpen your knowing,
deepen your wisdom,
and change the way
you walk forward.

But either way,
do not waste the experience
by endlessly studying
the place where it hurt.

Look at what it gave you.

Then keep walking.

26/09/2026

I should have seen it sooner,
the signs, the shift, the change,
the way someone can make you feel close
then slowly become a stranger.

They disappear for days
and return with a reason.
You listen.
You understand.
You give them the benefit of the doubt.

But when you finally say,
“I understand what happened,
but you could have sent one small message,”
suddenly you are the problem.

Why are you making this difficult?
Why are you questioning me?
Why are you making me uncomfortable?
Simple accountability is emotional intelligence

And somehow the conversation
is no longer about what happened,
but about why they were hurt by it.

Friendship isn’t supposed to be only give.
It has to move both ways,
with consideration, communication,
and some willingness to understand
how your actions affect someone else.

I’ve seen this pattern before.

I just wish
I’d recognized it sooner.

When No One is Watching There are moments when you leave the familiar behind and somehow find your way back to yourself....
23/09/2026

When No One is Watching

There are moments when you leave the familiar behind and somehow find your way back to yourself. England gave me one of those moments. Somewhere between the cool mornings, the quiet countryside, the water and the warmth of a fire, I remembered how lovely it is to simply be.

We are who we are
when no one is watching,
when the world falls quiet
and there is nothing left
to prove.

England reminded me
how beautiful quiet can be,
how a little distance
can bring you closer
to yourself.

I found myself in the little things,
the cold morning air,
the warmth of the fire,
the colours in my mind,
the thoughts I had forgotten.

Maybe solitude isn’t loneliness.
Maybe it is simply space
to hear your own heart
beneath all the noise
of everyday life.

So if you want to know yourself,
listen when nobody is listening.
Notice what makes you smile,
what you create,
where your thoughts wander.

Perhaps the truest version of us
is the one nobody gets to see,
the woman who is completely herself
when there is nothing to prove
and nowhere else she needs to be.

We are who we are
when no one is watching.

And sometimes,
you have to leave home
to find your way
back to yourself.

It’s time to paint.I’m back in Spain, and this return feels different somehow. After everything this summer brought with...
20/09/2026

It’s time to paint.

I’m back in Spain, and this return feels different somehow. After everything this summer brought with it, including recovering from heat exhaustion and feeling completely worn down, I think I needed to come home and simply breathe.

I’ve been awake since 4:30 this morning. I rarely wake that early here, but strangely I don’t mind it today. The house is quiet, the weather is beginning to change, and there is a feeling in the air that makes me want to slow down and start again.

I’ve spent a lot of time lately thinking about what I want to carry forward and what I don’t. Some things have taken up far too much space in my mind, and I’m ready to let them go. I want to stop giving my energy to the negative and put it somewhere that feels good again.

Into my home. Into my creativity. Into the people and things that bring me joy.

So today I’m resetting the house, resetting my head, and hopefully picking up my paintbrush this afternoon.

It feels good to be home.

And it feels even better to feel like myself again.

MY 90 DAY RESETI’ve reached a point where I’ve realized that some habits have quietly taken up more space in my life tha...
18/09/2026

MY 90 DAY RESET

I’ve reached a point where I’ve realized that some habits have quietly taken up more space in my life than I want them to. Too much television, too much scrolling, too much sitting, and not quite enough time spent doing the things that make me feel inspired and alive.

So I’m giving myself the next 90 days to reset.

Not to change my life, because I genuinely love so much about the life I have. I love my home. I love my time in Spain. I love having the freedom to create my own days.

I simply want to be more intentional about how I spend them.

I’m going back to my roots and creating some structure around the things that matter to me: a healthy body, a healthy mind, writing, journaling, poetry, enjoying my home, getting outside, and most importantly, painting.

I’ve given myself one simple rule: start with 15 minutes.

Rather than looking at everything I want to accomplish and feeling overwhelmed, I’m breaking my days into small pockets of purposeful time. Fifteen minutes is long enough to make a beginning, but short enough that I can’t convince myself I don’t have time.

And sometimes, I know, those 15 minutes will become 30 minutes, an hour, or an entire afternoon.

Especially when I’m standing in front of a canvas.

Because these next 90 days have a purpose. I’m preparing for an art show, and I want to give myself the space to paint, experiment, write, think and create without constantly reaching for my phone or falling into the comfortable habit of simply watching the day go by.

This isn’t about being perfect for 90 days.

It’s about creating momentum.

It’s about choosing what I want more of and making room for it.

More movement. More creativity. More writing. More painting. More time appreciating my home and my life in Spain.

And hopefully, 90 days from now, looking back and realizing that something beautiful began with something as simple as 15 minutes

Lately, I just needed to get away.The heat in Spain had become overwhelming, and honestly, so had life. I needed to step...
18/09/2026

Lately, I just needed to get away.

The heat in Spain had become overwhelming, and honestly, so had life. I needed to step away from everything for a little while, breathe some cooler air, slow my mind down, and just decompress.

So I came to England, in the countryside with a very good friend. Cool, crisp nights, cozy evenings, beautiful scenery, laughter, good homemade food, and absolutely no pressure to have everything figured out.

And somewhere in all of that, I found a little peace.

A Weekend to Breathe, A Moment to Reset

Sometimes you just need to get away,
to somewhere the air feels different,
the nights are cooler,
and life moves in a familiar way.

To wake up to views
wander through beautiful places,
watch the horses in the fields,
laugh with a good friend,
and forget about the rest of the world
for just a little while.

There were no big plans,
no need to rush,
just little moments
that somehow became the best ones.

A warm fire on a crisp evening,
good conversations,
silly laughs,
beautiful scenery,
and that wonderful feeling
of finally exhaling.

09/09/2026

The Mask Finally Falls

It’s really not that deep.

I keep trying to make sense of it
because I’m a kind person.
I’m a thoughtful person.
I wouldn’t do that to somebody.
So I keep looking at what they did
through the lens of what I would do.

But garbage people do garbage things.
Selfish people do selfish things.
Inconsiderate people do inconsiderate things.
And some people will do some really low s**t
and sleep just fine at night.

That’s where the disconnect is.
It’s an incongruency in our nature.

It’s in their nature to do diabolical things
because their moral compass just keeps spinning.
And I keep trying to find logic in it
because I assume there has to be some reason,
some explanation,
something I’m missing.

But maybe I’m not missing anything.
Maybe this is just who they are.

The mask finally fell.
This is who they’ve been the whole time.
Just because I’m seeing it now
for the first time
doesn’t mean this is who they suddenly became.
This is who they’ve been all along

It’s been loaded in the gun the whole time
and the bullet just finally went off.
And that hurts.

But I also have to accept
this is the reality.
People rarely do something just once.
I believed an apology only to let it happen again

And I’m not going to understand it.
Honestly, it’s a blessing
that I don’t understand it.
Because if I could really understand
how somebody could move like that,
I’d have to have something in me
that could move that way too.
And I don’t.

A snake can shed its skin,
change its colors,
look completely different,
but it’s still a snake.

And snakes do snakes**t.

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