No Power

My silk steamer arrived a week ago at the house, but I wouldn’t allow myself to open it. I focused all my energy and attention on my wedding invitations. Working with a very small budget  does limit what I am able to do with the wedding. But I knew I could afford to design some awesome invitations. But it killed me having to wait on my steamer. I was ready for the wedding hoopla madness to be over so I could focus on things that really mattered to me.

Lately, I’ve been realizing this will probably become a pattern for the future for me. I will not be able to focus as much time on Little Things Studio as I do now. If I kept working at this capacity, our marriage would greatly suffer. And I’m not going to lie. This is hard for me. That’s why I left the steamer which I saved months for in the box.

Last night Dave and I opened up the four big boxes and carefully assembled the silk steamer in the den. Once I had everything set up, I plug it in and it blows a fuse. We then carry the entire thing under the garage to try that. It immediately blows the fuse out there. The wattage is just too high for most of the power outlets in the house. This took over 4 hours of unpacking, moving, testing, etc. I am discouraged because you know, I wanted it to work! I waited so long on it. Unpacking that box took me back to when I was a child at Christmas. I still don’t know how I’m going to get it to work.

What I’m learning is that this electrical wiring issue is just like planning a wedding. Planning a wedding is madness. (Unless you can afford a wedding planner! If you can, that’s awesome!) And planning a wedding while trying to somehow run your own business is tough. Extremely tough. I have to say NO to new work so that I can work for the wedding. Slowly but surely, it’s becoming my full-time job. I’m learning to not commit, to fulfill the work I committed to do, and accept that I am not able to start any new creative and artistic endeavors until after our move. I wish that were easy for me, but I have such big dreams with beautiful visions. I am fearful that when I finally get time to get back to work, it will be just like waiting for the silk steamer – I won’t work.

Over the past few months, I’ve started following Seth Godin’s blog. He says so many things that resonate with me, that speak to me where I am. Reading this encouraged me to write this down today. I want to share one of his recent posts with you today --> “The Certain Shortcut”.

The shortcut that’s sure to work, every time:

Take the long way.

Do the hard work, consistently and with generosity and transparency.

And then you won’t waste time doing it over.

Kate