Doldrums

Holly of decor8 blog recently posted about daily flower arrangements as a way to overcome the end-of-winter blues. I like this idea a lot - I love flowers, especially daffodils and irises - but it's not financially feasible for me right now, given that I'm mostly unemployed.

So here I am, stuck in the creative doldrums, and waiting anxiously for spring. Somehow this unpleasant transitional season makes even more acute the questions I always wrestle with: how do I balance art, time, and money? Why do life concerns of bills and housekeeping always take so much time? How come I can't find a job? (Thanks, economy. Thanks a lot.) How can I learn some sense of discipline inside creativity, so that I'm not always only prey to the whims of my impulses?

I'm really looking forward to a workshop in April called "A Life That Doesn't Suck (Financial Crisis Edition)", run by several professional dancers in Philadelphia as part of the city's annual Dance Theater Camp. While I expect most of the discussion to be immediately relevant to the dance side of my art world, I know the issues we'll be talking about - the value of art, building community, time, money - are relevant across the board.

In the meantime, I think I'll go riffle through my box of paper goodies and send friends some unexpected mail. Hopefully that will briefly lift any sense of blah they might be struggling against, and perhaps help my sense of wellbeing, too.