(From Fast Company) “Those who are lit by that passion are the object of envy among their peers and the subject of intense curiosity. They are the source of good ideas. They make the extra effort. They demonstrate the commitment. They are the ones who, day by day, will rescue this drifting ship. And they will be rewarded. With money, sure, and responsibility, undoubtedly. But with something even better too: the kind of satisfaction that comes with knowing your place in the world. We are sitting on a huge potential boom in productivity — if we could just get the square pegs out of the round holes.”
More quotes: “The shortest route to the good life involves building the confidence that you can live happily within your means ( whatever the means provided by the choices that are truly acceptable to you turn out to be ).” For quite a while, I dreamed of being a financial planner, helping folks figure out how to live this particular thing out. (Turns out, while I love the idea of helping folks figure it out and get there, I’m not too enamored with the actual work itself of financial planning.)
The article is adapted from a new book by Po Bronson, called “What Should I Do With My Life?”. It’d be a wonderful Christmas present. . . (hint, hint)
December 16th, 2002
I vow to have made my last Michael’s run this year. . . my craft supplies are stocked with more stuff than I can possibly do in the limited time between work, mommyhood, and sleep (oh, to have more sleep!). Yet I still am lured by the siren call of one more neat project, one more craft that just would make the holiday season complete. Yesterday’s purchase was a set of white card stock with which I hope to make snowflake picture frame ornaments. The hope would be to make these each year, putting in that year’s new pictures of Cora, so that she’d have a full set by the time she was too embarassed to let her mom put those ornaments on the tree.
But there’s no reason that that particular craft needs to happen between now and the 25th, other than it’s the holiday craft season! Similarly, I have wooden birdhouses downstairs that have just screamed to be decorated as little gingerbread houses, rather than remaining on a shelf completely bare of paint or ornament. And the pile of yarn left over from other projects that just might be usable on the next one is a source of great amusement for our cats. Still, every time that flier from Michael’s comes, or I run across a new craft idea (there’s one in a new magazine called Budget Living – use those Christmas lights to poke through an artist’s canvas to make a neat lighted picture – bare canvas with a constellation of Christmas lights). . . well, I add another item to my mental want-to-do list.
Maybe when my daughter’s old enough for us to do crafts together, we’ll make beautiful things and I’ll be able to pass along my crafting disease. For now, I must suffer alone. . . and the stockpile of supplies continues.
December 16th, 2002
