Using Patience to Achieve Balance

Working in a deadline driven industry you would think I would be numb to anxiety by now. Not the case. Instead, the feeling of anxiety has compounded since Cadence was born. I thought I was prepared. I really did. Prepared to successfully juggle parenthood, my job, freelance work, friends, family & all the other odds & ends of life.

I read an article in the May/June 2010 Communication Arts by Wendy Richmond called "Permission to Loiter," in the article she talks about watching the ebb & flow of your life. And that when you are able to leave "white space in [your] life" new & exciting connections will appear. I want to slow down & add white space into my life. I really do.

And because I want to find white space in my life, I've recently started a daily routine of watching my creative health - recording input & output - along with my physical health - eating right, sleeping more & exercising. I have learned the two go hand in hand. I've also started planning my week out in real time rather than in pseudo time. In real time I'm more realistic about what I can accomplish in a day, rather than in pseudo time where I believe I can accomplish a week's worth of things in one day. It has taken great patience to wait for projects on my to do list to be completed. But you know, completing the project isn't the real reward - it's the journey along the way.

This post was brought to you by M. Ward's album "Hold Time."

May 5, 2010: Make Art Day

Make Art Day Rules
1. no email
2. no facebook
3. be in my studio by 8:30AM with tea in hand

FOCUS PROJECT: acadia illustrations

i completed the 5th illustration for our book by lunch!

all the illustrations together

i headed out into the sunshine at 11:30AM to meet jarrod for lunch.
indian food for the first time. mmmmmm.

after lunch i headed back to washington street & had a photo shoot with the afternoon light.



after uploading the photos & doing some visual research for my next illustration i decided i had hit a creative wall. so, i went out for a four mile run. it was nice to not have to force my mind to be creative in the afternoon when it doesn't want to be. after the run i was able to make progress on the sixth illustration. i hope this first make art day isn't my last! it was very refreshing.

Illinois Half Marathon

I accomplished my second half marathon last Saturday here in Champaign-Urbana. I completed the run in 2 hours & 2 minutes - 8 minutes faster than my time at the Fox Cities Half five years ago.

After the Fox Cities Half I swore I would never run those 13.1 miles ever again. You know you should never say never. The accomplishment of this race is dedicated to (blamed on) my loving husband, Jarrod. He signed me up. Listened to me whine. Pushed me to train. Listened to me complain. Found running partners for me. Watched Cadence during my long runs on Saturdays. And most of all, he believed in me.

During my training for this race I never wore a watch. My plan for race day was to finish so I could get my Saturdays back from the long annoying training runs. I started the race with a 9:33 per mile pace group since that was the time I had been doing right after Cadence was born last year. I guess that pace was a bit slow for me since at one point the friend I was running with asks, "You are working, RIGHT?"

When we hit the 10 mile mark I eagerly looked at my friend if she wanted to speed up. We had talked about this being the point that we would break away from the pace group. We only had a 5k left. She told me to go ahead. And I did. It was nice to let my legs speed up to the pace they wanted to go. When the last mile came I thought to myself "this mile is for my training. For all those missed Saturdays with Jarrod & Cadence. For all the lunch runs when I would have rather been doing something else."

My new PR just shows what someone can do with a little pressured training from a loved one. Thanks honey!