Long time no type!

Been a crazy few weeks.  Teaching 2 online classes while working a 9-5 is more of a handful then I expected.  Literally, my fingers are so sore from typing!  I have one student in my class who was home-schooled and VERY needy, she is also producing the best work, so how can I deny her assistance?  I am sure I felt equally overwhelmed when I taught my first class while working, and this too will become more comfortable overtime.  So, I apologize for the recent inconsistency. 

A couple of huge revelations have come up in the past few weeks.  I have recently connected with a great book called Caffeine for the Creative Mind.   It focuses on how to keep your creative going, and how to exercise that element in all the basics of day to day that we get stuck in.  How to have that big great idea after you just ate lunch and were going through the motions.  How to work with very regimented creative tools and software with scientific priniples in a creative way.  It is full of little exercises that will help you consistently look at things differently so you can solve the puzzle a new way.  I HIGHLY recommend it for any designer, artist, or manager.  Its great for creative problem solving and for anyone in a rut in their job.

I know so many people who aren't totally thrilled with their jobs right now, which is why we call them jobs and not passion activities! But they aren't looking for a better option or a way out because of the economy.  They are just killing time in the "safe" place they found to hide.  Perhaps some of these exercises will help make a safe place to hide more interesting, or provide a creative idea about how to get to a happier place. 

I am struck too by the fragility of human life and the abrasive way we as a society are currently interacting with each other.  People are so hurtful on a day to day basis, and we have even started being careless with ourselves.  We are so connected, yet so very distant and selfish.  We self medicate, and push ourselves too far. We make snap judgments about people we don't even know.  Like hungry animals fighting over the last piece of meat, it is often abrasive and harmful.  What happened to love thy neighbor?  I have had people lie directly to my face and not bat an eye.  This is something that is so very foreign to me, and so shocking that I look like a dear in the headlights.  The department of Human Services has a large line outside in the morning when I pass it everyday and not enough people to help.  Its HUMAN services, shouldn't we be able to provide that, at the very least?

I have decided today that I will move forward with an even stronger resistance to the negative in society.  There is no reason that we should not continue to treat ourselves with the love, care, and the delicate nature that our mothers did when we were babies.  Why shouldn't we hold each other, and protect each other from the negative?  Lately, meditation has been a way to protect myself, to nurture my inner self, and to heal the wounds of the day, but I have slipped from my schedule with all of the extra juggling.  It has made me realize what a difference that quiet stillness makes. 

I also recently realized that I have a pattern of staying in positions where I continue to trust people who stopped protecting me. This is true of past work and personal relationships.  Once people start hiding behind you and feeding your ego by telling you its because you are strong.  Once you are the one who is left alone to solve the problem they created and they look at you and shrug like they are lost.  Once you are left bruised and holding the bag.  They stopped protecting you, and in doing so you cannot trust or rely on them anymore.

The new question is this....how do you spot it before you are trapped in the cycle?  What are the warning signs?  This is the difficult part, and one I will have to dwell on a bit.  What I will do is find a way to love myself and my neighbor and resist the negative without hurting myself or trusting in a facade.