What Do You Desire?

Photo by Whitney Wasson

I have been struggling to find time to post to my blog. I hope my readers hang in there, as I have so many beautiful handmade works and projects to share with you. Since the move, though, the number of things happening here with the kids and my work and all that has to be done with this new house overwhelm my free time. I prioritize my family, then my job (which is part time). My creative life and my blog take up whatever time is left over, which has been minimal to say the least. I’m not sure if I truly have less time than I did when I was in Boulder, or if its partly just the emotional toll that moving across the country takes after being in one place for twelve years. Whatever it is, all the extra “oomph” I usually have has been sapped out of me. I’ve been looking for it–it’s like its packed away somewhere in the pile of boxes in the basement, maybe with all the yarn I am sure I had that I can’t find.

But, I’m feeling a changing tide, or at least some increased velocity in this whirlpool I’m in. I’m thinking it just might spit me back into the flow of life soon. Sometimes, I think we all need something to come along and remind us of what we really want out of life.

My mother sent me this video the other day and it inspired me so much, I watched it five times. When I hear Alan Watts speak, he makes me happy. He makes me believe that all things are possible. Not only are they possible, but that it is truly essential to pursue what you love, and the life that you want will and can happen.

Here are some of his essential questions:

What would you like to do if money were no object?

How would you REALLY enjoy spending your life?

What do you desire?

He states: “Better to have a short life that is FULL of what you like doing than a LONG life spent a miserable way.

But please take the three minutes to watch this video, you’ll be glad that you did.

I think I need to find the faith to simply “dive in” to a life in which creativity is my focus and my career. Thinking on this reminds me of the post I did a couple of months ago on open-ended creativity when I worked embroidery and paint into an empty piece of cloth (below). Creating something out of nothing is scary because you don’t know what it will look like or even where to start sometimes. Or, once you have started, perhaps you get to a part where you are stuck and you don’t like it and something feels “not right.” But if you get back to creating your work with a little of what you like and build on it with more, it almost always works out.

So, I’m going to take this minor slow down over the last five months as a brief hiatus on my path to the creative life that I want. I am going to take the time to ponder Watt’s essential question: “What do you desire?” Won’t you think on it with me?