Creativity and Protection

366 Days of Creativity Week 18 in Review: April 29th-May 5th & Days 120-126

Day 124:
"Here stood a tangible symbol of the very meaning of working with intention - knowing both my gifts and my limits, my calling and my opportunities that need a 'no' and being at peace with understanding the difference. To give myself the time and freedom to create the best art, and to confidently turn down those roles and opportunities that aren't the best fit."
-Tsh Oxenreider
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I was double checking the above art quote (it was one from my friend and sometimes she adds parenthesis with personal application ), and the only place it was on the internet was a blog. I checked the quote and then noticed this "Yes and No Manifesto" also in that same blog post.  Thank you to Helen Washington for letting me put it here and for your blog, A Work of Heart.

Yes and No Manifesto:

• Yes to Sabbath
• Yes to play
• No to over-scheduling
• Yes to big empty spaces on the calendar
• No to guilt making me say yes
• Yes to spaces for reading
• Yes to being a deliberate lifelong learner
• No to allowing the online world to steal away time from pursuing my dreams
• Yes to the gaps in my life so I can easily and with joy bless others
• Yes to being intentional about our garden
• Yes to expanding our travel/vacation horizons and letting our imaginations soar.​

​I commented on the post and asked for permission to share it here because it was literally like she wrote what I would have wrote at this moment for my own manifesto. Not to connect each point, but know they all do connect... I had just been to a silent/solitude 24 hour retreat and was hit hard with how much I need Sabbath regularly in my life and more white-space and less online time. I'm teaching a monthly play series this year because I also need more play in my life. I also swore the garden I planted this year would not die because of my lack of care.

It's funny because I thought having my own business I would have more white-space time in my life where I could create art and go slower (people who have their own businesses are laughing at me right now). But that's just not been true. There is always something more I can do. And I've actually been lucky that several opportunities I've been asked to do haven't worked out on the other person's end so far because I haven't been able to say no for fear of missing an opportunity. Now that I reflect on it, they weren't the best fits with my gifts, time, and energy anyways.

I have to intentionally stop or not schedule something and make and prioritize the time.  And by protecting my time, I really am protecting my life. If I don't take time to do art and create I will dry up and be miserable. If I don't take time to rest I will be miserable and no good. 

It makes me think about a stove. What if we all really only have four burners? I like to think I can do a million things but I keep getting the message that's not true, even if they are all things I like. If we only have four burners we have to take something off the stove to make room for something else. And if we keep it off the stove for a long time, when we finally do make time for it and put it back on, it's going to be ice-cold and take a while to warm up and finally get hot and ready. We aren't getting the full benefit if we put something ice-cold back on the stove just for a bit and then take it off again. It doesn't have a chance to even be effective. It made me think of a friend who said she rested on the weekends but not during the week and thought it should be enough but still felt like she needed more rest. Maybe it's because it took her all weekend to get up to warm or hot and then she took it off the stove and it got to cold all week. 

What hasn't been on your stove for a while that needs to be there more frequently so it stays warm, or hopefully, hot? What do you need to take off your stove that is taking up precious energy and heat? I hope your intentional life of saying no and yes to what you need to turns out delicious.