“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
~ Annie Dillard
Now is all there ever is!
So, we’ve all got dreams, which is awesome, but there’s one HUGE problem with them. They’re always something that will happen in the future and the years go by and you’ve been too busy getting the dishes washed or going to your dentist appointment and then you stop and look up and it’s ten years later. The future is here and the dreams are still dreams. As a heartfelt bit of advice from someone who’s living in the middle of a “making dreams happen moment”, I’ll let you in on a little secret.
It NEVER feels like the right time.
I graduated from college with a concentration in ceramic sculpture 12 years ago and all along I’ve been yearning and wishing and hoping to get back into playing with clay. I finally gave it a little jump-start a year and a half ago and got some clay ingredients and started making sculptures. Well, with no way to fire them, my enthusiasm piddled out again and I let it lie dormant.
Well now I’m 6 months pregnant and feel like my whole life’s passing by and last week I got this “now or never” feeling that I couldn’t ignore. So, I opened myself back up to dreaming, I looked through ceramic supply catalogs and compared kiln prices. I was hoping to trick myself into buying a tiny test kiln and starting with that. Well, even tiny test kilns cost $400 and then I’d need clay ingredients and I’d only be able to make sculptures by combining components that measured no more than 9″ by 7″. My dream started to depress me again.
I randomly searched Craig’s List and found a medium-sized, used kiln being offered for $400. Sure, it was a two hour drive away, and of course I didn’t have that much extra cash sitting around, but the idea of it kept gnawing on my mind. So, I took some money I shouldn’t be spending and made my poor husband give up a well-earned day of fishing to drive down there with me and check it out. The kiln got hot when I plugged it in and the people even had the original instruction booklet and all the kiln furniture so I jumped in headfirst and handed over $300 cash (got a deal, yay!) and we loaded it up into the truck and drove back. (The inside measures 17″x22″, a far cry from the 4′ tall sculptures I made in college, but a new kiln that size would cost at least $1,200!) In fact, I’m running a test fire right now with the work I made last year!
Why should you care? Good question π My point is that it ALWAYS feels like the wrong time to jump on our dreams and start living them, when in fact it is always the right time.
You could get a kiln, too!
Yes, you can run out and get a kiln right now (or build a brick-fired pizza oven or take a trip to Jamaica or take the first step toward whatever dream you’ve been yearning and waiting for.) Sure it feels impossible, but it’s all about priorities (and I have to nod my head in thanks to Megan Auman on this point).
I told Megan that the eventual goal for my business was to make enough money to help finance my art making dreams and Megan encouraged me to start making art right now because time spent waiting for the most important yearning of your soul is time wasted. Well, my jewelry business takes up almost all of my waking hours, but I started setting aside whole mornings or afternoons or Sundays to paint watercolors or make oil paintings and the biggest thing I got out of that time was a renewed conviction that my best art-making is three-dimensional. I suck at drawing and painting and I am awesome at making sculptures. That’s just the truth. (Not to mention that jewelry sales didn’t slow down, so that proves that it’s okay to spend time dreaming! Really making river rock jewelry is like making a sculpture, so in that way I’m already living the dream, but I know that I have so much more to give!)
So, here’s the thing. Just like you have to “make time to exercise”, you have to make time to live your dreams right now. And I bet you’re already coming up with all kinds of excuses, “Oh, I wish I could, but I have to finish X first.” or “I need to wait until we’ve payed off X before doing anything frivolous.”, etc. The bare bones truth of the matter is that it’s not outside circumstances preventing you from living your dream right now. You actually CHOSE not to live your dream yet! Sure, some choices are worth sacrificing dreams for. Like, if you choose to spend money on food for your kids instead of spending it on a kiln. But IT IS STILL A CHOICE YOU’VE MADE. Don’t put the responsibility for your dreams not coming true on the universe, own up to the choices you’ve made!
I challenge you to think of the smallest action you can take toward making a big dream a reality and just DO IT!
Take that small action and see where it leads you!! Even if the smallest step you can take is to start PRETENDING that your dream will come true and soon, then start pretending! That’s what I did with our dream of living in Mexico in the winters.
A few years ago I made up this sign and stuck it to the fridge with no idea how it could possibly become a reality. Yet here we are already with the foundations of our Mexican house poured, a little dog who’s going to come with us, a firm plan to leave my day job when the baby is born (in November!) and a truck that we’re going to drive down to spend the whole winter of 2014/2015 in Mexico. We’re going to stay with my in-laws in Mexico while we finish building (most) of our house! (And I assure you that we are not rich people!! My husband makes less than $25,000 a year at his seasonal farm-hand job and I’m working part-time in a library and part-time on my jewelry business. We are humble folks of humble means!)
So, take the smallest small step today. Start believing in yourself and in your dreams and then repeat. Not only is it possible to live your dreams now, it’s your moral imperative to start living them!
(Come back to the blog next week to see the nature sculptures I fired in my first test kiln and get a sneak peek of the awesome art I’m planning!!)
Eileen Lundquist says
You rock!!!!! Always enjoy hearing what you have to say!!
Pea says
Sniff! Thank you for your post. I’ve been doing jewelry and crochet for years and years, dreaming of it too while I’ve gone to my day job as a graphic designer for a newspaper (cue ominous music here). I’m going to be 55 in November, so I’d been dreaming of a different life, one where I did something I loved instead of sitting in front of a computer designing ads while my pay and bennies dwindled away to mere subsistence.
Now they’ve laid off my entire department, so I’m sitting here wondering what to do with the rest of my life. Time to use those art degrees! Your post could not have come at a better time. Thank you so much.
jennyhoo says
Oh, good luck! Stories like yours are going to become more and more common, I think. It’s a new economy we’re living in (as Tara Gentile would say) and it’s time to step up and take it for our own!! Sometimes it’s a scary place to be in, but scary can be turned into exhilarating! Just keep confident and keep going, stay true to yourself, and stay positive π
Wishing you the best!
jennyhoo says
Thanks Eileen π You super rock!
Jasmine Carbajal says
You are just so inspiring and I am so happy to call you my aunt and part of my family! I have been wanting to start a blog, and while it is still in the “building” process, this just gave me the extra push to really get it done. And I’m about to create a map like yours and stick it on my fridge! π Thanks Jenny!
Tamara says
Good one, Jenny! Thanks!
Judy says
Awww, you always touch my heart! I am so blessed by your blog post, attitude, and just your ‘essence’!!! Good for you. I have made the “Plunges”, and purchased all I need. NOW I need to “Exercise”…take the time to make some real hot metal messes and take some more risks. My baby steps are starting to get to be toddler sized!!! Sweet joys to you and your little (growing) flock. Excited to see all of your ceramic magic…
jennyhoo says
Aw, thanks Judy π *hugs* from Wisconsin!!!
jennyhoo says
Tammy! π I saw a picture of you punting around in a little boat π How many times have you fallen in? (we’ve got a bet going!) ;D
jennyhoo says
Aw, Jasmine! You are too sweet!! I’m happy to call you family, too π *hugs* from far away!
TheArteSana says
Exactly what I needed to read…I have reached a crossroad in my life and your story will help propel me onto the path that my spirit is yearning of… creating a beautiful crafty lifestyle I so often dream about.
Thank You!
jennyhoo says
Any time π Best of luck!!
eileen keelan says
You are so positive, an inspiration! I am always procrastinating – putting off things and I have so many ideas but most remain that way – ideas! I get all fired up with enthusiasm but get distracted with so much going on. And yet, once I get going I am ok. Thanks for the inspiration Jenny! You are so talented. π
Jenny Hoople says
Thank YOU, Eileen π There’s always laundry to do, always a toddler to play with, but somehow sculptures get made. Really getting started and sticking with it no matter what. That’s the key!