I think it is a gross overstatement when some people claim that nothing ever goes as planned. However, when some things inevitably do not go as planned, it can indeed interrupt your life to an unexpected degree.
Once again, my blog has gone silent for longer than I had planned. Without going too far into private details, I am currently dealing with sudden personal crises that have forced me to temporarily suspend my work almost entirely. Fortunately, January and February were relatively calm months work-wise, so managing my various projects and commissions ended up being easier than it could have been.
A handful of things were either impossible or too hard to opt out of, so I have been trying to isolate pockets of calm in my suddenly upended schedule – not entirely unlike eyes in a storm – where I could at least try to focus on what little work I had left to do.
With all the past experience I have, I have at least lived as I teach in these past weeks; I have communicated diligently and early on with all my employers about my situation (saying only as much as necessary, of course) and working out mutually beneficial solutions for all of us. Fortunately for me, it has all worked out really well so far.
Looking ahead, I know I will make it through all of this with plenty of new experiences and a renewed inner resolve. It may come across as cheesy (in fact, I’m sure it does), but I have honestly been through worse and come out on the other side so while I know it is a cliché, I also know there is truth to it. Further on in the year, I will need to rethink my work plans for the entire year as I imagine spillover from the beginning of the year will affect all of my upcoming plans.
Well, if nothing else, at least I believe the saying goes that great artists suffer – by that measure, I should indeed be a great artist by now, if I wasn’t one already!
I expect the next blog post will be some time in mid to late February, perhaps early March. But rest assured, just like the T-800, I’ll be back.