Getting it done

I'm in the beginning stages of learning about meditation. While there's no way I want to get sucked into Transcendental Meditation (which would be impossible anyway, when a series of sessions is a good $2500!!!), the book 'Transcendence' still has some wonderful material to cull from it.

So far, this simple sentence is what has struck me the deepest:

"If you want to get something done, you can't wait until you feel like doing it."

This resonates in my life, putting off projects because I'm not in the mood to work on it. Dishes pile up, laundry follows suit and I take care of those because they have a physical legacy: you can see the mess, people run out of bowls and underwear. So those chores area automatic.

But the projects that are closest to my heart: photography, learning to sew well, drawing with my children. learning music or foreign languages... these have no physical manifestations. It's easy to keep pushing those wonderful dreams aside because you can't see it pile up. I feel it piling up inside of me, these dreams and hopes, but it rarely feels urgent. It builds until I feel underwhelmed by my ability to create. Those artistic pursuits take time and attention and focus, so they are pushed aside since focus is so difficult in a 1000 square foot house with 4 people. There is so little time when we both work full time and still want to pay so much attention to the children. Plus the usual: appointments, meetings, soccer practices, etc.

So I have to take the plunge. Choose one thing to start: order a ukulele; make time to draw with the boys in our art journals; put handsewing projects together in a basket so they can be picked up at a moment's notice.  Starting small, accomplishing small feats and working for something.

And don't wait for the inspiration to do it, because it's in the doing of something that I become inspired.