Today I came home from a full day of study and catching public transport during peak hours (not a massive fan of being surrounded by hundreds of strangers at the best of times) and as I walk in the door, I notice the clumps of dog hair that have quickly accumulated over the past couple of days because of the beautiful pair of puppers my partner brought with her when she moved in.
FYI I now consider them my fur babies. I love them dearly.
It's the first of the month and it's generally the time where I write my blog and send it out with my newsletter along with the events I'm doing for the month.
I actually had the energy for this creative blog writing endevour and that's what I was thinking of doing on the way home, when the fur clumps forcibly re-routed my creativity into doing housework.
I don't know how you are with this stuff but I don't like mess and I don't like it when the house looks unclean (it never looks that bad coz I stay on top of it but I'm probably a teeny tiny bit neurotic around it).
I'd like to blame my mothers incessant need, while I was growing up, to have the house spotless at all times and have me wake up early on a Saturday morning, every Saturday morning since I can remember and help her spring clean the house from top to bottom.
Yep, SPRING.
TOP TO BOTTOM.
EVERY SATURDAY.
My mum cleaning the windows at the convent in Spain where she grew up (jokes - photo by Austrian National Library)
I was a teenager, god damn it! I was supposed to sleeping well into the afternoon because that is what my body required due to all the hormones and growth spurts!
Anyway, I'm over the anger towards her about that now and I just thank my lucky stars that I didn't get as ridiculous as she did around cleaning, bless her modest stockings.
There's definitely trauma surrounding that level of cleanliness... I've got far more interesting trauma around sexuality and such. Way better.
As I was saying, fur clumps.
There was this overwhelming urge to get the vacuum first and foremost and suck all that furriness up ASAP.
I then noticed washing that needed doing and washing that had already been done that needed taking off the line and brought in. I can get on a real role with this shit.
The whole thing turned into this tug of war between sitting down and using the energy I had to get my creative genius on, and cleaning.
The cleaning urge was strong.
So strong in fact that it won and I quickly vacuumed everything up and got the washing off the line and did a new batch of washing.
I did it quick enough that I still had energy left over to do my blog (that I am writing right at this very moment) when I thought to myself, "If a plane just lost control while it was flying nearby and crash landed on my head right now, I would have a semi clean floor (I vacuumed but didn't mop) and some washing done but my creativity would go unnoticed and not had the opportunity to inspire or support anyone that needed it or inspire or support myself."
It dawned on me that I prioritise things like doing chores over writing, playing music or just creating in general and that is a waste of energy when inspiration hits sporadically but the house work can be at any time of the day or even another day altogether.
That shit will always be there.
Nothing bad will happen if you don't have housekeeping done the moment you notice it BUT the world could potentially miss out on that beautiful piece of you that might have inspired them to be creative themselves in some wonderful way.
That was a very extreme example re plane falling on head but it could be as simple as the feeling of inspiration leaving or of exhaustion taking over making it almost impossible to be creative or (a popular one) the kids demanding 'whatever' from you.
You get the point.
So please, when creative motivation hits, don't waste it on chores that can be done any other time. I promise you that the world needs your gifts way more, especially at this time, way more than it needs your clothes to be put away.
You could even reward yourself with doing chores after you have completed something creative.
Two birds!
Jesus. Reward indeed. I feel like you have a better insight of just how neurotic I may be around domesticity.
I don't care. I'm sure I'm not alone with this stuff. I just hope it's inspired you to do more with your motivation.
Big love
Rx