Have you
ever noticed that life has a way of throwing curve balls at you? Just about the
time you think you have everything under control, shit hits the fan. You know
what I mean. You finally get the credit cards paid off and the car goes KLUNK
and dies on the freeway. The Christmas bills are paid and the furnace blows up.
You finally free up a four day weekend for relaxing and doing nothing when
Great Aunt Bethany calls to say she’s coming to town for a few days. It is easy
to get caught up in the little things and lose sight of your passions. A few
extra hours at work; a couple dinner invitations; people making demands on your
time and asking you to do things for them; it all adds up and eats into your time.
How do
you find time for those passions? When do you say no? When do you start to let
things slide? When do you shout at the world, “Enough is enough?” But most importantly, how do you decide which
things occupy your time?
Personally
I am selfish. I try my best not to neglect my needs. Don’t get me
wrong, I don’t mean I refuse all requests or tell people to take a flying leap
when they ask for a favour or for some help. I just do my very best to make
time for the things that I love to do, for the things that nurture my soul. I
try to hear what my mind and my soul are telling me.
I am a
creative person and I try to be aware when my creative side screams for an
outlet. I NEED to do crafty things. I need to write stories. Some are good,
some are awful, but they need released from the crowded confines of my mind or
my head will explode. My house is littered with the detritus of my creative
side. There are piles of partial manuscripts, writing materials and reference
manuals. There are balls of yarn, knitting projects, needlepoint canvases and half-finished
baby afghans. My studio looks like a fabric truck exploded inside of it. Fabric
is stacked and draped on every surface, pattern books stick out of weird
places, all higgety piggety. Generally,
I have so many projects on the go that I can’t decide what to work on. My
husband says that I have Magpie Syndrome; I get distracted by bright shiny or
colourful objects. He may be right. Personally I think it is just my creative
side trying to escape and express itself to save my sanity.
The
trouble is that sometimes it is hard to fit that creativity, that passion into
my life. But somehow I manage it. It is a very rare day that goes by when I don’t
indulge myself. Sometimes it is with writing (most days); sometimes it is a
couple rows of crochet or a bit of applique or quilting. To find the time, I
have turned down invitations to coffee, to home clothing parties, dinners, and
on occasion, I tell my man that I cannot go with him to Home Depot, or that he
has to wait an hour while I stitch this. Recently, I have told my kids I don’t
have time to visit. That isn’t as cruel and heartless as it sounds. I see one
daughter and her family at least five days a week, so a missed visit isn’t a
big thing for any of us. My other daughter is as busy as I am, so I rarely turn
down the chance to see her.
For
years and years, I cleaned my house from stem-to-stern at least once a week,
sometimes more often. Now, I’m doing good to get it done once a month. We don’t
live in squalor. I’ve just changed my priorities. Things are clean enough.
Nobody who comes over complains, in fact one fellow says, “I like coming here,
I feel comfortable, like I was at home. I’m not worried about destroying a
show-home.” The first thing he does when he shows up is take his socks off … so
the floors can’t be that dirty.
The joke
around here is that if I have cleaned up, someone must be coming over. (And
usually that is true!) And hubby has taken over the dishes and the laundry.
This leaves me more time to play with the things that nurture me and keep me
sane and happy. Because we all know that if Katie isn’t happy, no one is happy!
It’s
about balance. It’s about not neglecting your needs to meet the needs of
others. It’s about being who you need to be and not feeling guilty when you say
no or when the toilet doesn’t get scrubbed exactly on schedule.
Remember
the move Goonies? They were under the wishing well and had to choose between
following a dream and searching for One Eyes Willie’s treasure and returning to
the world of their parents. Remember Mikey’s passion speech about time and
staying a Goonie? “Our
parents, they want the bestest stuff for us. But right now they gotta do what's
right for them, 'cause it's their time. Their time, up there. Down here it's
our time. It's our time down here. That's all over the second we ride up Troy's
bucket.” Mikey had it right! Stand up for your time, not what is right for the
people in your life. Be strong, be a Goonie and make time for your passion.
Make time for you! Stay out of Troy’s bucket!
What is
your passion and how are you going to find time to fit it into your schedule?
Hugs
Katie
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Thank you for visiting my blog. Hope you enjoyed your stay.
Hugs
Katie