Day Two


This is an OLD post from 2011.
It doesn't reflect the realities of my life now.
There are far fewer choices available right now.
And much less free time.
Then I was learning html and how to change colors, etc. 
I haven't changed a color on this blog in 6 years.
I do try to add occasional written updates, though. 
And I still try to evaluate choices. 
Have you heard this saying?

If everything's important, 
then nothing's important

Yeah, I thought so.   I like to do a lot of things.   I didn't even list all the things I must do, just the things I like to do.   I'm talking to myself here, but if it helps you, then great.   Dixie, you can't do everything.

Life is about making choices.  The constraints of our time and our space help us in making these choices.   In fact, psychologists propose that constraints contribute to creativity and inventiveness.  That's good news!   I only have so much space and time, just like the rest of you.

Some questions to help me in my choice-making:

What will I wish I had done (next year, in five years)?

What would I do if I weren't afraid?

Which things fit with my creative personality?
Which activities are most practical for my life?

Which activities contribute to the family budget?



Some things I need to cut down on:
Playing around with the colors and backgrounds on the sites that I write for.   It's fun but it doesn't necessarily make the sites function better.    In five years will I wish I had made a painting instead of switching the background of a site from pale ochre to yellow?   

Pleasing people.  I really, really, really like to encourage other people and help them.   But, and this is tricky, am I ignoring the needs of my family and even myself to please another person?  Sometimes the other person isn't putting forth as much effort to help themselves as I am.  I'll still help people who need it, but I won't worry as much about pleasing people.

The online checking loop that takes up a lot of time (ouch!)....first check email, then check news, then check facebook, then check groups, then check twitter.   Then start the loop over again.  Will I wish I had made a painting or created a folk doll instead of doing some of those things?  


Side note.  My family hates the picture above.  It was taken by my photographer friend Danielle Pease. I was modeling for a project of hers about women of a certain age and what we've learned. She took a lot of great pictures that day!  I was goofing around for this one.  But she caught something in it because it got ALL kinds of reactions from my family.    I put it on the fridge before the kids got out of school last year and my son with autism went right to the picture and threw it away even before he had his snack.   It looks like the face I make when he is being told he's lost a privilege.   My husband said, "Don't post that picture."  My other son said I look mean.  And yet here I am posting it.   It's a great motivational poster for ME to hang in my studio while I do the sorting of STUFF.   I mean, really, if I try to keep the 3" piece of string, do you think that woman will let me?  

Are you still with me?   

You're probably a friend 
or family member. 
Or you need to clean your slate, too.

XO

11 comments:

Sonja said...

Oh, yeah.. I read the whole post :) and definitely have to do some cleaning.

JDConwell said...

How funny is that? My first thought was:
WHAT A FABULOUS PICTURE!!!

I have two life-long friends--we went to middle-school together. One of them I go to when I want to be told what I WANT to hear. The other I go to when I really need honest talk. In your picture you're wearing the expression she wears when she tells me "Will you get out of your own way and do what you KNOW you should do?" :~) Priceless.

Your list of questions is vastly useful. I shall copy them down, and may even ask them of myself.

Hill Country House Girl said...

I'm still with you.

Christopher Hillman said...

Love it, great renewed effort on your blog! The picture is worth a thousand words, which is the point in posting it. Life is about choices. I recently came to the realization that the question of what I was going to do when I grew up has been basically answered for me by my choices of what I did every day for the last 18 years. In the same way, the projects I'd assumed I'd find time for are undone because of choices. I too must ponder what I could cut down on... when I find the time ;)

Dixie Redmond said...

I'm so glad I'm not alone. Thank you ;-)

Sonja - Yay! We can do it together.

Jan - yes we all need an honest and loving friend who will tell us the truth.

Chris - thanks for commenting. I respect you on so many levels. But yes, it's the choices of our moments that make up the choices of our lives. I am behind today getting to what I want to do because I procrastinated. I need to work on that!

marian said...

what a fabulous post, Dixie and so timely too... have you been checking up on me LOL??? i'm really tempted to print your picture and pin it on my studio wall to remind me what really matters...and to throw out that 3" of ribbon LOL!!!

Simply Shelley said...

Me too...Thanks for sharing :) Blessings

KittyAnn said...

I am so glad you decided to repost this one Dixie, great subject! I've forwarded this on to my very artistic and creative 23 yr old daughter. She has the talent to go far but she is floundering about with indecisions, spending too much time online, trying to *fit in*, spreading herself too thin, etc. Maybe reading your post will give her a nudge down the path to finding a way forward with intent. I wish I'd had this post to read when I was 23! Although I didn't have the internet to take up my time I still could've been way more focused and productive than I was all those years ago.

Susan said...

Amen, a thousand times Amen! Wonderful post! I love how you put words together to create such meaning. I myself decided to cut back on social media last month and what a difference it has made in my life! I am more positive, more creative, and just plain happier. I understand that there is a need for social media with a business, but one does not need to be tweeting, facebooking, posting, etc., all the day long. Oh, and I love your picture...that's the look I give people who have just done something stupid. lol Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Be Fabulous!

Lana Manis said...

Oh, Dixie... I sure needed to read this again, too! Thank you for the reminder and for the thoughts to ponder.

Daisy Debs said...

You are SO right !..but you have to go where creativity takes you..that's just the way it is .
Just please don't stop this journal because I love the things you do and say. Put a " laughing you " picture up on your fridge and in the craft room . xxx


"Do not let what you cannot do
keep you from doing what you can do."

John Wooden