16.6.10

Setting Limits

Do you feel overwhelmed by the things you feel you need to be doing and by what you think you just want to be doing? Often running yourself in a circle and not getting much accomplished? I often feel that way. Time just never seems to be on my side... I'm sure many of you agree. With so much needing to be done everyday from the cooking, dishes, cleaning, laundry, caring for others (for me my 2yr old), outside work... the list can go on and it seems that the creating part gets put on the back burner most days. I am hoping once our house renovations are done more time will be given to artwork. But really it all comes down to priorities. Setting limits and focusing on what means the most and couldn't live without has to be looked at first. I'm sure many of you creative souls reading this find it hard to stay organized... somedays you let the mess go to concentrate on making something. My house usually looks like a disaster. Of course having a 2yr old dragging toys everywhere doesn't help but you have to choose what is the most important to you. Focusing on the household projects or creating for my little business that I have such a desire to make succeed can be real difficult to balance. I'm not sure why I feel bad giving more time to creating. I guess I feel I'm not being as good of a wife/mother when I let the housework slide. Another thing, I think the outside world or rather the people who aren't very creative, who lets just say it... look down on people who create for their living, plays mind games on you. Maybe that has something to do with me pushing the creativeness off to the side. I don't know if you've experienced it but I've had people think I just sit on my butt all day and watch TV just because I don't go to a job outside the home. For some reason they think everyday is a free day to do whatever. And in reality these people can't get farther from the truth. I've gotten better about pushing those rude comments out of my mind but they are still there... and when I let the house go, well then someone always stops by and its like oh my goodness it really looks like I don't do anything cuz everything you see looks a mess. Life can be a lot like a dandelion. When we're young we're in our own little world. Happy and free, with a beautiful bright spirit... as creative as we want to be with no limits. As we grow we gain responsibilities. We are starting to be pulled in so many different directions and we have several choices we need to make. Some days our light starts to dim. We start to lose focus on the dream we had when we were little. But when I take a deep breath and step back... look at where I want to go, what I want to do, what's in my heart, it becomes easier to push the negativity away. Instead of dispersing all of my energy in different directions... I want to focus on creating. I don't want to keep pushing it off. No gain will come from that. The only thing I want to disperse is positivity and inspiration through my creations... to touch other people's hearts. This is what I feel I was meant to do. God gave me a talent for a reason... and no the talent wasn't in cleaning and cooking. ;)

If you've found a good way to find a happy balance with creating being a top priority please share!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

i can definitely relate jodi! (although i'm sure things are a lot crazier for you with a 2-yr-old to look after!) there are always so many chores to be done that it is hard to fit in creative time, and sometime you just HAVE to let those things slide for a bit. you can't expect to keep things up alll the time, it's just too much!

p.s. i really admire that you create art for a living - i think that's amazing!

Modred Vintage said...

I can relate to the passive agressive comments. At the end of the day if you and you're family are happy that is what matters.

Violetstone said...

Yes, I feel the same way lots of the time. It's getting to the point where I don't want to let people in my house cause it's so messy but I don't want to clean it up because I want to to do my creative stuff...perhaps we never find the balance but just keep struggling through...

Good on you for keeping going with the creative stuff. When I just worked for home I was always getting those negative vibes. I would say to a person I met on the street, oh I'm just off home to work and they would just laugh, or give me a look that said, 'oh, yeah..working?' Now that I have a part-time job I think people think the creative stuff is just a hobby, but perhaps that's just my worried thoughts..