Life doesn't always go according to plan...
As an artist and small business owner, I can’t do my job without planning. New work needs to be created, events planned for, not to mention sorting taxes. All the fun and not-so-fun stuff. The thing is that sometimes all those plans go out the window.
Sometimes we are forced to slow down and simply can’t carry out the plans that have been made. It’s all too easy to feel like we need to do everything, often if we don’t do it then it doesn’t get done. Create all the things, develop all the skills, attend all the events. It’s easy to become overwhelmed and forget to enjoy the journey.
Recently I’ve had this brought home with a big thump (again). At the start of September, I had a blog post all about how nature starts slowing down as we move into Autumn after all the frantic activity of Spring and Summer. The days are noticeably shortening and the nights are colder. How business wise there is a natural lull for me at this time of year and how I intended to take a few days off before starting on all the jobs for the run up to Christmas.
So there I sat with my blog post almost ready to go. I just had a few more things to do before I posted and started on that little mini break that my body and mind were crying out for. One last event, oh and just a few more things.
Things were all about to go wrong...
The event itself was a complete disaster. Sales, weather, dogs peeing on my tablecloths and their owners being rude about it, the list goes on. Now this happens and the only thing to do is make the best of a bad situation and chalk it up to experience. As we packed up on Sunday, I couldn’t wait to get home and forget about work for a few days. I needed a break to recharge and I knew it. A few days would be enough I thought, then I can start back on my massive to-do lists again. However, as I mentioned it didn’t quite work out like that. We both got sick a couple of days after the show, and I mean stay in bed because going anywhere is next to impossible level sick.
We’re now over half way through October and I’m still trying to recover. I did take a break from work but I wasn’t able to relax and recharge during that time because I was sick. The small odd jobs around the house to get ready for winter didn’t happen. Tidying up the garden didn’t happen. All those jobs for the business didn’t get done. So now the pressures of getting ready for the Christmas season have arrived and my to-do lists could easily explode into the length of a multipack of toilet rolls with tiny writing on them.
Time to go with the flow...
At this point, it’s really easy to get stressed out. I had a plan and circumstances have waltzed in and ripped that plan up. I hate it when that happens to my plans. I’m attached to them and I get a weird sense of satisfaction completing a to-do list. But my body is telling me I’m not recovered from that illness (I’m sure you can guess which one, the modern plague on our beautiful world), and the doctors aren’t able to give a timeline either.
So the thing is that getting stressed out isn’t actually going to help me. What will help me is accepting that the plan I had is no longer what I need because of circumstances beyond my control. I need to prioritise recovering and regaining my health. Can I work still? Yes, but not at the pace I was before. So time to go with the flow and make a new plan…
Take care my friend
Mara
Photos taken at Easington Colliery in County Durham on top of the cliffs, or beach banks, and down on the beach when I took an afternoon away from everything to just think. I think better when I’m just wandering about with my camera and listening to the sea.