I am a firm believer in working at living a balanced life. I don’t always succeed, but I work at it. The more I am able to balance work with creative expression and Sabbath, the more my energy grows, the more creative I feel. It’s like this wonderful birthing cycle: if I can keep balanced, then I seek to engage my life more and more fully; I have a greater amount of energy I can put into manifesting my visions and dreams in the world.
Holy Week for pastors is a hellish week, really. Pastors, if lucky have as few as two services that week; if unlucky could have as many as seven to nine services (Easter included in that count). I was semi-lucky. I fell in the middle. Working in a small part-time congregation I had only one of each of the major services: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. Still, I ended up doubling my normal half-time hours.
Since this was my first Holy Week in a long time, I set out to live it balanced. By balanced I mean playing as much as I worked. Engaging and feeding my creative artist self as much as I engaged my professional pastor self so that there was some kind of energy for my pastor self to engage Holy Week. I have to say, I mostly succeeded. Exhaustion hit, but not until Saturday; collapse happened after Easter Sunday service. I call that a win!
Anyway, I wanted to engage and feed my creative side. I have been reading Julia Cameron’s book The Artist Way. She suggests an exercise of listing things that I like to do and things that I want to do. Then pick three and do them. I decided that was the way I was going to keep balanced throughout the week. I picked three: cooking/baking, walks/hikes with pup, and painting. I did them, sort-of.
I cooked and baked every night. My house became that hearth I love so much and have missed. Smells of creativity, love, passion filling my small apartment. Curry. Chocolate. Citrus. Fabulous luscious tastes. Pleasure. Eating. Beauty. Awe. Holy.
I hiked everyday. I will admit I planned ahead. I planned where to go for my the daily hiking adventures. I searched the internet for preservations nearby and was blessed by finding more than half a dozen within 20 minutes of my house. The pup and I explored two new ones and revisited an old regular haunt/hike from last year. We enjoyed the beauty of God’s creation, our feet (paws) on the paths walking over rolling hills, looking at some gorgeous vistas, breathing in the scent of spring, soaking up the Energy of the Holy, resting in Mother Nature’s Goddess arms.
Now, painting..... I admit that it felt at first like a chore. To paint in my tiny apartment means I have to rip apart my kitchen. Set up my kitchen tables as a painting station thereby giving up use of the kitchen for cooking and baking. My table is my only "counter". Trying to cook and paint in that same space creates more stress than relaxation.
I was about to give up the idea of painting when I went and revisited The Secret Play Date (http://kindergartenmind.com/welcome): a blog about a woman who makes a Secret Play Date with herself each week. Really cool actually. Well, the link I hit took me to a play date with a sketch app on her iPad. Hmmm... I have an iPad. I could “paint” on it instead of tearing apart my kitchen daily. Well, that is what I did. I spent that $1.99 and bought the app. I played and had fun and found pleasure and laughter and joy in 10+ minutes of playing on the iPad.
I started out by playing with the different brush strokes, getting to know how they worked, what they looked like. It was fun. I began to let go and let happen. I allowed my painting self to engage the “paint” of the iPad with joy and laughter and spontaneity.
Each night, I spent time playing on my iPad until I felt a completion with each drawing. Sometimes it took only 10 minutes. Other nights I was working at that painting, engaging it, struggling with it for up to an hour.
Sometimes it was light, fun, playful...
Other times it was hard, difficult; like walking through that murkiness of power again.
All rewarding. All energizing. All worth my time and effort.
This past Holy Week I reinforced the experience that feeding my creative inner child artist self is ultra important in my journey to manifest these new visions, dreams, hopes into reality. The more I engage my creative self, the more energy I have to use in manifesting my dreams out in the world around me. The more I work at manifesting my dreams, visions in the world around me, the stronger the invitation I receive from the Universe (the Holy) to continue to feed and engage my artist self. It cycles back upon itself, spiraling, liberating, manifesting, energizing.
Try it yourself and see what happens. Balance your life. Play as much as you work. It could liberate you in some unforeseeable and exciting ways.
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