Freedom

What does this mean to you?

Is it some far away concept that seems unattainable? Or the embodiment of how you go about living your life?

Recently while at work I have been spending more time thinking about writing and music than I have the tasks I am paid to do while I’m there. In a sense it feels like my paid work is taking time from me that I would otherwise be able to spend writing and developing the story ideas running through my mind. Of course this is not true, because I must earn income to have the means to eat and pay rent. It is a goal of mine to be able to write for a living. However, this is a long term plan.

At times it feels like working for eight hours a day, five days a week, most weeks of the year, limits my ability to do the life-giving things that bring me joy; writing, making music, creating things with others. This also is not true. My job affords my subconscious mind time to drift around and grab onto ideas it may not have thought of otherwise. Our organisation also supports stroke survivors and their families around New Zealand, so we are hopefully impacting lives positively. (Even though I am working in the background and not directly involved in providing this support.)

Thankfully there are times I feel the shackles loosen and creativity come to the fore in my conscious mind. Whenever I grab onto this, and throw these ideas onto page without limits, I feel energy coursing through my veins. I am doing what I was meant for. The same feeling rises in my soul when I engage with music. Whether it’s listening to a new song I’ve found, playing my guitar and singing passionately, or writing my next ‘greatest’ tune, I am drawn into a world I can’t quite explain. Like the feeling of sun on the skin on a spring day, or sitting cuddled under a blanket in front of a roaring fire with a hot chocolate: it feels cosy, comfortable, and just right.

It is a wonderful thing to know, yet I still spend inordinate amounts of time doing things that are not this. Even when I’ve organised plenty of time outside of work to not be booked with appointments and engagements, I manage to find less useful things to do. To put it bluntly, I squander a lot more time than I should. I would have had the first edit of my first book well and truly done if I had used more of my time embracing this creativity energy!

There’s no point looking back at that time and hoping I’d spent it differently. No matter how much I want to change the past to have been more productive, I do not own a machine which enables traversing the temporal.

What can I do? Write more stories, sing more songs, cook more meals. Put simply: make stuff, and share wonderful moments with people.

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What are the creative goodnesses in your life that you know you are meant for?

How can you flip things in your life to spend more time diving into these with all your energy?

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Drive yourself to be the best you can be every day. Sometimes, this will mean making a cup of tea and watching your favourite television shows. Other times it will mean creating and even finishing amazing things in less time than we thought possible!

You’ve. Got. This.

PEACE.

Cover photo by amy chung from Pexels.