Perspective and Jelly Beans

photo by Magna Vita Photography

Stepping back, way way back, and looking at things through a long lens can be very useful. It can help provide a different perspective and help to focus when you zoom back in. You haven't seen me for a few weeks. It feels like eternity since I have posted on my blog or on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or Pinterest (phew!) but I was stepping back to refocus.

Personally, these past few months have caused me to reflect a great deal. I have also had more "work" personally as I have been buying a house and moving my Mum in with us and working on healing. It has been a busy time of change around here. I found myself stepping back even further to look at Kimberley's Kitchen. I took a breather and it was very necessary.

In the background I have been doing some big KK projects. Some that are taking longer than others due to all the personal work. But that is why we do this, right? We choose this life of entrepreneurship and self-employment to have that flexibility and to be able to prioritize based on our needs, our family's needs, and our dreams. 

Balance in life is not an image of all things equal. This simply doesn't work. It isn't realistic or practical or even physically possible. Some may call it a give and take. I call it an ebb and flow.

I grew up on the ocean and the beachfront below my backyard stretched out for miles. I loved that the ocean was sometimes so far out that I couldn't even walk to it and still be seen by my Mum in our kitchen. And sometimes the waves crashed against our seawall and even over it, spraying salty water on my bedroom window. The ocean formed so much of who I am. So it was only natural for me to use this image for the balance that I strive for in life.

I think that the best preparation for motherhood is good health- mental and physical health, knowledge of food, and knowledge of healthy child development. But of course there is so much we can't prepare for. We have no idea who our children will be and what they will need from us. As I have grown with my daughters and learned about who they are, I have been discovering what kind of balance fits our family.

I probably do more than I should. My Mum would be thrilled to hear me say that. When I started KK and then had the audacity to keep it up, she told me I was too busy and doing too much. When I hosted a market, when I launched into online sales, when I took on another volunteer position, she told me I do too much. Sometimes it is too much. Which is why it helps to step back and view from a distance. The way I would walk out to the shoreline on our breach and look back at our house in the distance. Our house appeared smaller than a doll's house.

Being in my Kitchen brings me joy and creating and crafting fills me up. But there is an ebb and flow to creativity. It is easy when we work on our passion to be drained of inspiration, or have a need to stop and breathe. I think it is important to go with this flow and let creativity take its path. I have been putting my energy into so many things right now, I had nothing left for KK. At first, I was feeling tremendously guilty. But then I settled in to it and asked myself "why do I feel the need to constantly be connected?" And "how connected can I truly be if I feel creatively tapped?" 

Connecting for the sake of it is, well, not very connected. 

I love Easter. It has always been my second busiest holiday next to Christmas and the product is always fun and fresh and pretty. I had started crafting and creating to launch my Easter products and then I stopped. Now with the holiday so close by, I have had to re-think my promotion plans and switch things up a bit. That's okay. And to get me through the late nights I have been snacking on jelly beans. Okay, not very nutritional, and it's not like I am eating a bag a night! But they are just so Easter-y. They make me happy.

This time to gain perspective, plan ahead, and fuel my creativity has been necessary and useful. I have been reminded of why I love what I do, how best to find the balance in all that I do, and most of all, I have been reminded of what is really important in life- family. And to me, that is what Easter represents. It has always been a time of renewal and celebrating family. This year, I turn 40 the week of Easter. More than ever, I am reminded of how much I love having a family, how lucky I am to have the life I have created for myself, and how much I really do love jelly beans.

~K

Comments

  1. I'm with you on the jelly beans (not the black ones, though, lol), I treat I can have these days. Balance is tough to maintain, your ebb and flow analogy is a good one, as it really describes what I've experienced myself over the years. I have found parenting kids myself has given me enormous perspective into my own parents relationships with me - some things make so much sense that didn't at the time. Nice post.

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