separation of church and state 009
subscribe to @homeishowiheal on youtube for visual meditations on learning to make living an art.
what is work-life balance? is there such a thing in a capitalistic society that claims to reward us the more we grind ourselves into the pavement. i’m on my third wave of trying to answer this question for myself inside the cogs of the nonprofit industrial complex. it’s all i’ve known. i’ve made a career out of my passion for creating frameworks for learning.
it started as an independent endeavor early in my career — writing a blog, creating gathering spaces, and organizing for spaces reflective of communities — which then moved to inside of cultural institutions. i experienced cycles of burnout. work was my identity and my hobbies became work. the only time i found success in divorcing the two is when my job became unbearable due to complete misalignment with my values and purpose.
had i been loving my job or jobbing my love? this viral clip tickles me as much as it baffles me. every time i try to decipher it i just hear a reiteration of commodifying my passions. i’m coming to terms with the reality that my art and the practices that go into it are spiritual. they are rituals that don’t care to be bound by time as the state requires. i add my art to my to-do list and it pains me. it resist being constrained by the time of day that has to wait until all of my creative juices have been spilled like a sacrifice.
i currently love my job again and found a loophole in the work not being who i am but what i do — against viral advice. it allows me to respect the art that lives in my work, while keeping it separate from the art that is just for me.
i want to return to the reverence i once gave to having a spiritual practice through my art. it is sacred. i'm learning to create without the expectation or demand that it has to become something but rather it is a source of understanding myself and the world.
CITATIONS
don’t love your job, job your love…
Angela Davis and Kwame Ture on capitalism in 1973 via @thenapministry. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPuU6jTkSG3/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link.
»It’s not a redeemable system. Divest from it. Rest and care for each other.
Rest, imagination, community care, and connection is the only way we will survive and thrive. Rest is Resistance.«
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