Holidays and the "Female Tax." The Joy of Making Things without Obligation.
Passover, 420, Easter, Earth Day,... There have been lots of holidays this past week! How are you holding up, with all those "female-tax" add-ons? There’s a celebration day for every lifestyle, adding to the usual whirlwind rotation of things to manage.Personally, I did things differently this year. Yes, we had a little meditation, brunch here at home, and an egg hunt for the littles, but I backed it off a lot- the tradeoffs were too high. So instead of the vague annoyance of the "must dos”, the past couple of weeks have been surprisingly joyful.
In addition to backing off the cultural expectations, I can pinpoint one specific thing that was different: I made things. Tangible things. For example, I messed around with some new media and made some paintings; I planted the coolest looking succulents in the nooks of a gnarled up piece of driftwood; I improvised in the kitchen to prepare some raw cacao, maca, and cashew balls.
In these spaces of play and artistry I lost all sense of time, and my self-consciousness went away. I found myself laughing for no reason, taking delight in the way colors flowed one into the other, or how flavors layered together. The cherry on top was presenting my little accomplishments as gifts to my partner and friends. I felt so renewed!
We talk a lot about self-care, and what that means. Exercise and detoxing the body get a lot of airtime in that category. How about PLAY? Renewal? Our creative spaces, where we are fully present, are the moments when we are most alive. When we are truly generative, even briefly, we carry nothing (or as little as we can) forward from the past. The new idea, the what if, the surprise of the now, is pure delight. We are fully here now.
Making the container to hold this space meant setting aside a few hours on the calendar where I had nothing else to do. Those time slots were blacked out from appointments, and labeled as "art making." I didn't know what kind of art that would turn out to be, but that was okay. I came out of my painting trance feeling like I was a kid embarking anew on the journey of my life, full of possibility.
What is your art? When did one of your own ideas or creative impulses surprise you, and make you laugh or gasp? What have you made lately? Want to share it with us? Post it up on Rosebud Woman's Page.
TO YOUR INFINITE CREATIVE POWER AND PURPOSE,
Christine
empower yourself
Related Articles
