It's been a week! I've been absolutely swamped at work lately, logging in long hours and depleting all of my brain cells in the process. (This illustration is one I did years ago, but it is still very much a self-portrait, especially the unruly hair!)
Needless to say, I haven't been getting much artwork done, but I have been writing here and that's a wonderful thing! I'm making my slow way through my children's book class and it's something I look forward to very much.
Today, let's talk about the permissions we give ourselves. The quote below is from a book called "Writing Poetry from the Inside Out" by Sandford Lyne:
For the longest time, like most of my life--I've been stingy about giving myself permission to live a life that I fully love. Unlike the quote, often in my life I DOOO wait for others to tell me what was okay to do, and what my next steps should be. Often having the feeling that I want to be chosen and discovered. It's a very passive way of living and I don't recommend it.
But there have been pockets of time when I've dug deep and found the courage to work out my life and choose myself. Like now in this season. I'm doing what the quote says, "Through trial and error, they learned how to experiment with their lives."
The first step to this is to listen to yourself. Really listen and not just hear. Get quiet. Write out your thoughts. Ask yourself the questions you dare not ask yourself like, "What would you LIKE to do?" and "What would you actually ENJOY?" and then, go do those things even if you're not ready, even if you're unsure. Go do them poorly if you must, but go and live your life out loud. We're here for such a short time and we'd best be using our time wisely. Like Brooks says in Stephen King's "The Shawshank Redemption": "Get busy living, or get busy dying."
So I'm doing all the things, the scary things, the brave things, the hard things and sometimes I'm doing them poorly, badly, but I'm doing them a little bit at a time. What are some of YOUR things? What are you doing to get busy living? Do tell.
Comments