Making the Time for Creativity

This year I want more to be more intentional about being creative.  For the past Covid years I have been living life trying to balance all the implications that an pandemic added to my life.  My job became so hectic that it eclipsed everything else.  This year, I have picked up this new motto that no work is coming home with me, that includes my thoughts, I will not fixate on all the things that I need to finish for school once I leave the site.  I have been using this technique, since I returned to work after Christmas Break and I am noticing that such a small change is really making quite a difference in my day to day.  I don’t feel this overwhelming shroud over me anymore because I am learning to compartmentalize things or maybe I am learning to set boundaries. 

All it took was something my boss said during our staff holiday lunch.  In her annual speech she said that she hoped we realized that there was more to work and to try to live our lives knowing that our family, loved ones and ourselves deserved our dedication too.  I had been so focused on my students and offering the best services possible and that became my entire focus and I was so miserable!  I felt like a robot only living to get my kids graduated during such uncertain times- this meant giving up on everything else because all of my energy was focused on doing a good job.  So, during break I began to do things that I hadn’t done since Covid hit and I realized that the more I balanced my life the more I felt like a balanced human being.

I finally restored a vintage, seventies Bottega Veneta bag that I found at The Salvation Army a couple years ago.  The bag had a big black ink stain to the faded tan leather and I knew that a dye job would restore it for another round of life.  I was able to dust my brushes and dye bottles during my time off and spend a whole day just working on the leather and bringing the bag back to its former glory.  It’s as if restoring this bag, helped reignite a fire that had burned out by the pandemic.  I began to get excited about equally frivolous things – like working on more leather projects and I felt joy.  Thus, I continued making small changes and I those small changes have reaffirmed that life needs to be about more than just work (smile).