“Imagine, if you will: you visit a new bagel shop not far from your home. You love going there because the chief baker has created a new recipe for breads, bagels, pastries and cinnamon rolls that are better than any you’ve ever tasted in your life! Soon, word gets out about this bagel shop. Crowds start forming lines each day, waiting for the new confections to come from this baker’s marvelous kitchen. The baker doesn’t have enough help, and ends up trying to serve all the customers himself. He is scurrying back and forth, busy with all the requests of the people – but oblivious to what’s happening to him. His exhaustion is quickly becoming burnout. What’s worse, as you watch him for a few weeks, you see a change. This man is getting thin. Very thin. It almost seems like he is shriveling up. What’s the deal? You decide to just sit down and observe for a few hours. Suddenly, the problem becomes obvious. This man never stops to eat. The irony is, he is busy serving bread to everyone else, but never stops long enough to feed himself. With food all around him, he is starving. “
Are you starving?
Are you emotionally, mentally, physically exhausted, yet always giving and doing? Is your time full of activities, yet you feel like nothing is getting accomplished? Are you feeling unfulfilled and have no joy?
I have been there too. I am a trained professional artist and creating is my passion. Yet, it’s hard to make a sustaining income with labor intensive work and a market that would only handle paying so much for an piece I made. I need a REAL job in the real world to survive.
I was never eating.
A better way to put it, taking time for myself. I felt alone, working myself to the bone, doing everything by myself to run a small home based business, while still working full time, having a family, and trying to juggle a social life. I wasn’t sure of what self care was and lost my joy. I couldn’t find anything that gave me pure and utter joy. No matter how many designs I made, cookies I baked, or cakes I decorated, the happiness was fleeting and I was exhausted. I was so busy working multiple jobs to make supplemental income I forgot about ME.
I love art, crafts, and making tons of stuff. I taught myself baking and decorating confections as a hobby/side business. I do a lot of trail an error with teaching myself new techniques and experimenting.
This blog is dedicated to my journey with a rare disease that has taught me to pause be joyful, fuel my mind, nourish my soul, and feed myself.
If you are like me I hope that I encourage you to take time to get control of your time — feed yourself, learn, get creative, do what you love, and never stop growing.
The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.
Walt Disney
It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
J. K. Rowling
Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.
Dr. Seuss
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