Digging Deep

This week, I am back in the *thick* of it at work-- deadlines, colleagues, tele-conferences, and what-not. Rather than finding myself in a place where I resent the work that presently pays the bills, however, I am approaching it with a bit more gratitude. For now, while my life as an artist is still in somewhat of a gestational period, it is this work that allows me the peace of mind to be creative just for the sake of creating. This fills me with great joy.

This reminds me of something else I read in the wonderful book Jivamukti Yoga, when Sharon Gannon and David Life speak about opening their yoga studio in the midst of a hustling-bustling-loud-crazy-hot New York City and how important it is to find your peace, your yoga, your practice (whatever that may be) in real life. In the context of yoga and meditation, it is *easy* (trust me, its all relative) to find stillness and space to devote to the practice when you are living in an ashram, and the real challenge is adapting your real life to accommodate the practice and finding your practice within real life.

Of course, they were speaking about learning to meditate, to find stillness and one-pointed concentration, with trucks roaring outside the window, but I think this is as easily applied to the life of an artist: yes, it was *easy* for me to make space for art while I was on hiatus, and now I am learning to embrace the challenges presented in making space in my life for my art (which I need to do to live fully, to live authentically, to cultivate one-pointed focus) until I can make it my full(er)-time gig.

I am struggling to reconcile these thoughts with something else I listened to this week that really spoke to me. I listened to this podcast from Marisa (Creative Thursday) on trusting that everything will work out and having faith in one's ability to make it with art. Although I really admire her for having reached this kind of peace, I am not there yet. I hope to reach that point, but here's where I am right now and I'm just going to go with it. Just like that lotus, I'm giving it my all to make something beautiful where my roots find themselves.

This beautiful lotus photograph was taken by RBG Photo.