Sometimes It’s All About Me

Posted on | May 23, 2007 |

I read this quote yesterday in The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron:

“Our bodies communicate to us clearly and specifically, if we are willing to listen to them.” Shakti Gawain

And it holds so true. Especially for someone like me, with a chronic illness. Despite the fact that my illness is mostly, thank the Universe, controlled in comparison to how it used to be, the treatment for it does take a lot out of me. And over-extending myself also takes a lot out of me. I need to watch my spoon count.
This week I had many visitors. I love having people over and I really like getting out of the house… don’t we all? I know that it is important to maintain friendships and to remain active outside of my studio. But at the same time, it exhausts me. This past weekend was busy with friends, their kids, and family. This weekend, we have friends and their kids coming in from Boston. We love these friends. And I want to see them and spend time with them, but I don’t want to overextend myself. And I don’t want to pay for it all next week, which is the week of our 15th Wedding Anniversary.

So, in preparation for a lot of intense public/group time, I decided I needed to take care of myself today. I stayed home, with one small exception of time, when I went to JoAnn’s for some sewing machine needles and some time just browsing and went to pick up my medications from the drugstore. I came home and ate lunch. And then I sat down in my studio. I ignored the phone, ignored almost everything and made today about JUST ME. I couldn’t think of where to start here in the studio. So I picked up my watercolor journal and I started scribbling with my Caran d’Ache Neocolor IIs. And I kept coloring and adding Matte Medium to set each layer. I added some journaling; I added laser-copied pages from other journal pages. And I creatd the journal page to the left. It’s 9″ x 12″ and it’s called “‘Today,’ she said, ‘It’s All About Me’.” And today, it was. It felt good to have a day just playing in the studio with no specific direction, no project to focus on, just focusing on me.

And I also wanted to share with you the third of my series of black and white doodle drawings I’ve been working on while watching TV with hubby. It’s pretty self-explanatory, I think, that she’s supposed to be a stylized angel. But if now, now you know what she is! LOL

I think it’s time to get back to just having some more all about me time. But before I do. I wanted to address the Create a Connection “Getting to Know You” question of the day:

If you could have a redo moment in your life, would you do it and what would it be? Not changing history drastically-it’s all just a what if.

And to that question, I answer, “nothing”. I would change nothing about the decisions I made. I have chosen to live my life without regrets and I have become the person I am from who I am and the decisions I have made. I may not always make the best decisions in the eyse of others, and my decisions may not feel good to some of the others around me, but they are the right decisions for me. And they help to define me. No regrets here. No re-dos. No do-overs. I’ve learned that we have but one chance to do things and get them right and that happens by living in this moment and following our intuition.

And with that, I will sign off for this lovely Wednesday.

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