Thursday, July 19, 2012

Balance...

My husband can tell you I often walk around muttering something about 'getting my act together.' He laughs and asks, "Yeah? When is that going to happen?"

He and I both know -- in truth -- that I have my act very together. But it never feels like I do.

Which is why I am reminded of that old adage that "feelings aren't always a reliable guide to action." Instead, clear thinking, imagination and resourcefulness must guide the way.





 
I write about my life as a woman 'of a certain age,' as well as about my art and creativity and my connection to other artists, because I hope that my life can be a small example of a vital female life that adventures on, despite the responsibilities of raising children, being a wife, caring for elderly parents at the ends of their lives, and, finally, being a studio artist and owner of a small art business.


Always seeking balance in all of this, I bootstrap myself along, somehow finding the energy to reinvent myself not just once or twice, but instead hundreds of times, its seems. I try to not define this as 'failure.' I hang onto the consistency and continuity that is me, in whatever stage of life I find myself in.
Life is an adventure, and existence is a gift. However confusing or painful, however many times one seemingly must start again, it is worth it.

Tonight, as I write this, I am reminded of what my dear father-in-law believed and often said: "Take care of what is yours." I have been hearing that in my mind today. I find my breaths growing deeper. I find myself starting to discern, again, what it is that is mine, and what is not.

And I know, again, that when I fully inhabit what is mine, I feel alive and ideas become unbottled and start to flow. And balance returns.

These are new pieces... a Painting Jasper pendant, embossed craft brass tab earrings and hand-wrought bronze leaf earrings. All are available in my Etsy shop!

2 comments:

  1. I truly understand what you mean, to me my life is like the ocean and the tide, what comes in and goes out has to be in a flow. I have returned to college at 53, put my art on part time due to the drama of life so I go to college and for oxygen I make my jewelry , it's necessary to survive , I gave up being normal along time ago, actually I think it could be overrated not sure. But I totally agree with you

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    1. Congrats to you, on returning to collage at age 53. Women go on and on inventing ourselves as we pass through the phases of life. As someone recently posted on Facebook: "Normal is a setting on a clothes dryer!" Women of our generation have changed the world, and we go on doing it. There is no 'normal' yet. We're still in a time of invention and exploration and mapping.

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