Work work work work work work work.
That’s all I’ve really been up to the last little while. I’m fortunate that I adore what I do, though I’m still navigating the for-work/just-fun bleed-overs that inevitably occur when one loves the arts, and happens to report and write on them.
This past week, I read, with great interest, the increasing rarity of freelancers taking vacations, which was good timing, considering I’d been thinking the exact same thing for months now. The last time I took a real, honest-to-God, non-working vacation, was 2002. Yikes. While I love stay-cations -and lord knows they’re getting to be the norm now -I am hungering to go away. I love what I do, I love the people I get to interact with, but… I just want to turn off the mind (and the computer) for a while and re-connect with the stuff that inspired me to go into arts reporting in the first place.
Yesterday I rang up a friend. We’d talked about going to the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Surrealism exhibit the last time we’d brunched, which was in… eeek, May.
“We said we should go when it was opening, “she mused, “and now it’s going to be ending!” Yes, ridiculous.
Sp we both agreed to make the time to get together and go art-ying.
Making time -for friends, for art, for life and for one’s self -is so vital these days.
It’s getting harder and harder to do, and yet it as the days and weeks rush by, it becomes more and more important.
I may not be able to up and take off for the month-long break I’m hankering after (but Eastern Europe, I hope to see you in the spring). So, in lieu of that, I’m hoping to make time -for friends, family, art, me -amidst the rush this week. Walking, workouts, lunch, coffee, painting, drawing, and, would you believe, writing -the kind I have been doing now and again, just for me. I want to make time for the things and the people I care about -now, more than ever, crappy summer weather be damned.
For now, back to work.
Oh yeah: featured painting is by favourite artist and mondo-personal inspiration Louis Le Brocquy. I plan on seeing his work in-person someday in the near future, and not merely spread across my laptop’s screen. Yes indeed… I’ll make the time.
Kimberly
Thanks for that post Catherine. There's nothing more important than making time for family and friends. Work and life often keeps us busy and it's easy to put off reconnecting with those who have been with us through the good and bad times.
Sid Smith
Hey there Catherine, as a freelancer a lot of what you're saying here really resonated with me. I've just gotten back from a week away but took my laptop with me so I could do a couple of hours everyday. I suppose it's something to do with insecurity; "if I don't keep doing what I do they may not ask me to do it again" kind of mentality taking over.
I know the old saying "all work and no play" etc but in this inter-connected 24 hour deadline world, it's sometimes hard to shut off and let go.
Must try harder!