Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Call It

Sometimes you just have to call it.

You can’t put it off any longer. The day will come when you have to refinance, buy a car, marry, unmarry, quit smoking, grow up, have a baby, get a life. You also have to decide what your habits and hobbies mean to you and what you expect from them.

My turn: I am not a novelist. I have a short attention span, become bored easily, and can’t sit still. My stories play out better as movies in my head.

I was once told to pick one thing and do it well. Do you realize how frustratingly wretched that becomes? Resentment builds quickly. So I spent time away from it and played with my other two hobbies which also became mundane. As much as I had loved these things, they had turned on me. I decided to take a break.

I bought a Canon camera and took up photography. I love it. Hmm. I started to work on my novel. Boring. I went back to blogging. Bits and pieces of this and that posted now and then. Love it! I picked up my cross stitch and work on it a few hours a week. Love it! I started making cloth dolls again. Love it! Photography, needlework, dollmaking – my kismet.

Passion returns when activities are performed in moderation. Guilt for one over the other vanishes. Concentration improves. Eating habits become healthier. Sleep is sounder. Joy abounds. Even the kids respond.

I think we do ourselves a disservice when we repeatedly do what we think we should because of obligation to someone or something, such as a price paid for a hobby we are no longer enchanted with, clothing we no longer love, trinkets we no longer need, people who suck out our happy. These things need to be let go. Every thing can be donated somewhere. As much as it pains you to see the money – or person – you invested in sitting…waiting…beckoning…not until these things are somewhere else will your liberation begin allowing the haunting to stop.

Your turn: Do it. Get rid of it. Let it go. Bad things or bad people, it’s time to remove the infringements from your life.

Call it.

2 comments:

Renee Silvana said...

Is there a "like" button for this post?

Nancy said...

I'm not sure how to do that, but thank you!