Sometimes…
(WIP- Dungeon Delve – A piece started for an A Order challenge, but was abandoned due to freelance obligations. Started working on it again 2/26/2013.)
Sometimes, inspiration strikes, everything clicks and creating art is easy. But at other times, fresh ideas are more stale than six month old bread. Sometimes too, your intentions are to strike while the iron is hot, but then life happens.
This can be especially true for those of us who work a day job outside of our freelance projects or for those of us who have young children and doubly so for those of us who both work a day job and have children; there just aren’t enough hours in a day.
For me, on an average day I work my 9-5, fit in a workout at some point, cook dinner, help with house cleaning and other errands, and then try to squeeze in some family time before my daughter goes to bed at 8. At that point I have approximately 3 hours that I can spend child free with my wife or dedicate it to personal pursuits and/or hobbies. Which for some, is a luxurious amount of time, but sometimes for me, it may as well just be a few fleeting minutes.
A perfect example of how 3 hours can turn to no time would be my evening last night. I was very much looking forward to working on a painting and after my daughter was “tucked” into bed at about 8 p.m., I set myself down at my computer only to find that it was not running properly. So a series of restarts, virus scans, and other attempts at something resembling computer savvy, along with fighting the little one back to bed, it is now 10:22 p.m., oh, what glamorous 30 mins I will get to paint before needing to go to bed myself. But I did it anyway, and no, I didn’t finish the painting but was still very satisfied with the result.
So, sometimes you are on top of the game, other times you are well intended and other times you can’t seem to get anything going;Â That’s okay, we’ve all been there, and likely will be there again. What is important, is not how much time you have, but simply spending that time. Yes, it’s cliche but it’s true. If you learn to carry on and push through those bad times, you’ll soon find that they happen less often.
But let’s take it a step further, and spin that a little more positively, we aren’t spending that time were are investing it, and isn’t a career or hobby, no matter how silly or frivolous, worth investing in? I think it is.
Go spend even just a minute today doing something that really get’s your withers; make it a goal to do this everyday.
The Toilings of Dennis Darmody 