Natasha - The Artist

It’s been five months since I quit my full-time job at the government. At first, I took on many contracts, worked a few weeks as Production Coordinator and Graphic Designer on a show, took on more contracts, then more… Then it hit me. I was taking on all those contracts for the money. I was becoming overloaded with work and obsessed with making more money, in case I wouldn’t have any contracts the next month. I was miserable. I slowed down. I took on less and less jobs. I made less and less money, but I’m still here five months later. I am budgeting differently, limiting my expenses, but I am happier. I realized that I like graphic design, but I am really doing it just to survive. My true passion is acting. I am craving it, enough that I don’t feel like doing anything else. But acting isn’t cutting it money wise right now; so I have to kick myself to take on at least a few contracts a month.

It’s been five months… Five months of independence, non-scheduled days, no one to report to, freedom. I am happy. I love it. I don’t like having a routine to follow. It’s also the end of thirty-three years of routine, schedules, reporting to parents, teachers and bosses. It’s like reprogramming my system to live a completely different life. I’ve been programmed that you ‘have’ to work for a company with a boss to survive. You ‘have’ to have money to live. You do what society expects from you. For the past five months, I have done exactly the opposite.

My body is in shock. It’s grieving. It has realized that this is it. This is how it was meant to live. There’s no turning back, I’m too happy. So I grieve. I have reached the point where I don’t know what to do now. It’s like I am at the point of no return and I am confused about how to keep moving forward. Looking at the future right now is like looking into the abyss. Although it’s really like that all the time, we never know what tomorrow will bring, but in my case right now, I am letting myself feel it more. I face the unknown in a much stronger way than I used to.

Two years ago, I spent a weekend at a solitary camp not far from where I live. I needed the isolation from reality, and the quiet of the country. I got there the Friday around dinner time. It’s a great place. I had my individual cabin, with a wood stove and no electricity. It was amazing. I walked in trails all over the huge, wooded property. I was at peace. I would go pick up my food at the ‘kitchen’, a cabin near the entrance of the property, and bring it back to my cabin to cook it. Simple foods were always on the menu: potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, all kinds of veggies, fruit, cheese, milk, whole grains, … I picked up my water at a source about a 7 minute walk from my cabin.

The weekend was going so well. I was getting my energy back, energy I had been lacking for years. I was talking to no one (which is mandatory at this camp). Being an introvert, working in a very open area full of contractors at the time, plus raising a family at home, I never had, or took rather, the time to be by myself, to be quiet. So this weekend was a God send.

Sunday morning, I go out for a walk in a trail in the woods. After being out for about twenty minutes, I hear howling… like a wolf. Struck with panic, I freeze for a moment, trying to talk myself into just keep going. I loose it and turn around and run back to my cabin. I think it took me five minutes to run back. I catch my breath and make myself some lunch. While eating, I can’t get out of my head: “What am I doing here? I should be home with the kids. I want to go home.” My husband was picking me up the next day after dinner. I still had a day and a half to go. “Oh God, what now?”

I lay on my bed, crying, scared that I wasn’t doing the right thing. I decide to walk to the main house to call home so my husband can pick me up that same day. I knock on the door, a priest appears in the doorway. The place is run by Catholic priests, they don’t talk religion at all, unless you bring it up. Which is good for me, because I don’t practice anymore. They are there to listen if you need to talk. When I suggest I want to call home to leave, he kindly asks me to sit and chat before I do so. So I sit. He explained to me that I was at the point where my body was relaxed, I was truly with myself, and my body was starting to panic because it wasn’t used to that. I was used to always being busy, always having something to do, so I was now feeling guilty because I wasn’t ’doing anything’. He suggested I stick around just to see what would happen, to keep myself ‘busy’ by reading the books I had brought or by drawing. So I did, and how glad was I to have stuck around!

The Monday was amazing. I starting seeing things around me in a completely different light. It’s like I could truly see life. I heard things I had never heard before. I went back to my favorite spots to take mental pictures so I could return whenever I wanted in my dreams. At the end of the day, I was waiting for my husband and kids. I sat on a bench up on a hill. I had an amazing view. The wind was blowing gently on my cheek. I closed my eyes to feel it more. Then I heard a voice. I was channelling my guide for the first time. I was truly at peace with myself. I was grounded and centered. Holding on despite what my head was telling me was the best thing I could have done.

What I am feeling today, the confusion about where I am going, what I should be doing, is just like what I was feeling that Sunday afternoon. I think I should find myself a job, what I am doing is ridiculous. Who am I to ‘defy’ what society expects from me? You see, I am about to embark in the greatest journey of my life, and my body is resisting it. It’s trying to bring me back to what it’s used to — to the illusion of safety. I just have to stick with it. I have to keep riding the wave and not look back.   

Ok, so I’m looking at all these great quotes and I can’t wait for next month to post them.

Life is 1% what happens to you and 99% how you respond to it.
– Chuck Swindoll

I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.
– Michelangelo

Creativity is essentially a lonely art. An even lonelier struggle. To some a blessing. To others a curse. It is in reality the ability to reach inside yourself and drag forth from your very soul an idea.
– Lou Dorfsman

Life beats down and crushes the soul, and art reminds you that you have one.
–  Stella Adler

I quit my government job on June 30, 2007, already with a few Web design contracts in hand. Enough to support me for a bit. Plus, I will be getting money from leaving the gov. as a backup if I need it — later though, in a few months.

First week of July, I find myself working as a volunteer production coordinator on a great play. I worked like a dog – and I absolutely loved it! Wow! It felt great. Of course, I worked on my contracts at the same time, so it was 18 hour days for me. Now, the show is over. Back to full-time graphic and Web design. I love graphic design. But right now, most of my big contracts are government contracts with hardly no graphic design to do. It’s basically back to what I used to be doing. I can charge more, but what’s the point if it’s not what I want to do? I have been taking these contracts in fear of not having enough money next month, or the month after.

What’s this doing to me? I am sick. I am sad. I feel like I am turning away from my true path. All these contracts are taking so much time that they are preventing me from doing the work I am meant to do. I want to work on art related projects. I want to act. I want to write screenplays. I want to paint. I need to. That’s my true path. That’s what makes me feel complete. I feel empty right now.

I am working on one very interesting project at the moment, but even that one I find myself pushing the deadline to its limit because of other contracts. Enough.

I consider this to be the first lesson in my new life. I want to help people listen to their instincts to help them follow their path. To do that I need to do it myself, I need to be an example.

There are 2 contracts I have not yet signed. I won’t.

I entered a 7-day screenwritting challenge. I have to write a feature film in 7 days. Having already started one, I thought this was a great idea to stop my procrastination. But when I am getting sick trying to manage everything all at once, it’s not worth it. I also found myself writing nonsense just to finish it. I will finish my script, just not for Friday — for next week

I will finish my painting that has been sitting there for months. It’s my painting of Diana and her two sons. I have been wondering why I needed to paint that. For the past few weeks, I have been noticing it more that usual. I have to finish it. Yesterday, I read a magazine article – next week is the 10th anniversary of her death.  

I already feel better having written this post. It’s like a contract with myself to not take on any more contracts I don’t want.

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Update - Sept. 18, 2007

I finished my painting of Diana, plus I painted 5 more canvases.  I am moving along really well with my screenplay! I even have trouble taking breaks from writing.  

I just read this quote on http://www.thewinningattitude.com. It’s very appropriate for me right now.

When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and your discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”

~ Pantanjali

After nine years, today was my last day working as a Public Servant. I quit my job to do freelance Web and Graphic Design and to give me the flexibility to pursue acting more actively. I will finish my screenplay. I will put up plays. I will paint. I am me. I feel great!  

I know I am on the right path. How? I feel happy. I feel complete. I feel safe. I feel safer now than when I had a permanent “stable” job. Things are moving forward without me having to do anything, or practically anything. I feel I am only heading uphill. The hill is so high it’s like a mountain — Mount Everest. When I hit the top to plant my flag, I will be changing the world.

Yes, you read right. I finally did it. I quit my job of almost nine years at the federal government. I am finishing at the end of June.

What will I be doing? Well, what I’ve been telling myself what to do for months. I will be designing for the Web (and some print), from home. And pursuing acting much more actively.

Immediately after I resigned, I felt a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I feel scared obviously, but I am not giving up because of fear this time. I am excited. This feels right.

I’ll keep you posted as things move ahead.