You know what happens when you’re a mom, wife and work two full-time jobs? You can’t keep up with DIY projects for your blog. Sad but true.
I have a creative outlet in VintageKC and keeping up with that is just about all I can manage. But I’m realizing I have no outlet for my thoughts about life and the person I’m slowly becoming. So, here comes a change in format for the ol’ blog. I’ll still post DIY projects as they happen, but I think for my sanity as a writer, I need to release the musings in my head.
Here goes nothing…
The process of becoming a business owner and creative director means lots of ups and downs, brick walls and stumbling. I’m trying to learn as I go, but there’s no one better to teach me about dealing with life than my darling son.
He falls down a lot.
Because of his Hemiplegia, his right side is weaker and as much as he tries to run fast and avoid pitfalls, a lot of times falling is just an inevitable part of his life. And that’s a lot like my life. I work so hard, so fast sometimes, that falling seems to happen on many occasions. Whether emotionally or physically, feeling like I can’t keep up or I’m neglecting aspects of my life, there are lots of ups and downs.
For the winter issue of VintageKC I had spent months planning and collecting items for the 1960s fashion shoot. Aligning schedules for 15+ people is no easy task, let alone outfitting eight of them. It was the biggest thing I’ve ever undertaken. And then I hit one of those brick walls I mentioned. Or maybe a hole opened up in the Earth right beneath me. Either way, I ended up standing outside a closed restaurant with 13 people trying to find a new place to shoot. The restaurant had closed the night before our shoot and failed to mention it to me.
Enter the full sprint faceplant.
It was one of those truly unbelievable moments in life. After some brainstorming by my awesome team, we ended up at The Aladdin Hotel downtown, which, as you can see in the magazine, ended up better than I could have dreamed.
Maybe someday I’ll be Tyra and just dream up crazy ideas and make other people execute them. 😉
But what I’m learning from watching my son in his reckless abandon in running around our yard is that falling down doesn’t mean giving up. He falls, always unexpectedly, but he gets right back up and right back out there running again. When I ask if he’s okay, he responds joyfully. I guess that’s because he’s doing what he loves and being free.
As much as he falls, he could be so discouraged. He could lay on the ground and cry and feel sorry for himself (Who does that? Not me…okay maybe me.), but he doesn’t. He has taught me more about strength, perseverance and living joyfully than he will ever know. And he’s just being himself. Just being two.
Being an adult, owning a business, running the show, it’s all a potentially stressful time bomb. But it doesn’t have to be. Just take one step at a time.
Something my son is learning is to be careful around potentially dangerous situations. He knows he needs help with stairs and will wait patiently for a hand; he knows that when he goes between two bricks in our yard to slow down and step carefully, one foot at a time.
And thus I’m learning to slow down and care for the things and people around me, as hard as it is sometimes to sweep and cook and clean and change diapers and still find time to be creative. But if I care for these things and these people, when I fall, they will be there.
I guess I’m simply learning to deal with roadblocks and stumbling through the car-obsessed, vegetable-avoiding mind of my wee offspring. Ninety-nine percent of stumbles are not the end of the world. As I found out this time around, sometimes obstacles open up doors to bigger and better things. You just have to believe.
Follow your dreams with reckless abandon, friends.
Estate sale find 🙂
AmidShipps 