The Art of Balance

What I dream of is an art of balance.– Henri Matisse

I find the art of balance to be a challenge, one I face every day. The complicated demands of daily life, from taking care of other responsibilities to taking care of myself (getting enough sleep, exercise, eating right and meditation),is a puzzle of how to fit everything in.

The balance challenge continues into jewelry making. When your work is jewelry design, the joys of creating are offset by the responsibility and details of running a business. Creating beautiful and unique pieces is exciting, rewarding, and fulfilling! Conducting inventory, writing labels, filling out applications, organizing my work space and doing taxes is tedious, jobs which are unfortunately, in my case are too often procrastinated upon.

After weeks of mind-numbing inventory and tax preparation, I am finally finished. Little intervals of design time and photographing our visiting birds, helped ease the tedium and reminded me of both why I design (the joy) and also the perils of procrastination (the stress). A lesson hopefully learned is that balance as Matisse said,” is an Art” but one that needs effort, not procrastination, to achieve.