Have you ever gone to make a peanut butter sandwich, only to find that there is only a little bit of peanut butter left in the jar? You abandon the standard knife, instead going for the rubber spatula, scrape off what peanut butter you can get from the bottom and inside surfaces of the jar, and then try to spread it onto the bread. Sometimes this works out just fine, but sometimes you find that, no matter how carefully you scrape the peanut butter from the jar, there just isn't enough to spread on a slice of bread. You end up with a mildly peanut butter flavored sandwich- but the result is just not the same.
Creative energy, for me, is the same way. I only have so much at any given time- and if I try to spread it out too much, I find the result less than satisfactory.
Recently I've been experiencing a peanut butter moment with my creative efforts. I'd gotten going pretty well with the writing- but then I decided to paint the kitchen. And design and make new curtains for the kitchen window. And a few other creative efforts. All my creative energy went into that- and somehow I couldn't find enough creativity left for writing. So I've slacked off.
I had intended on getting back to the writing as soon as the kitchen was finished- but before I knew it, Thanksgiving was just around the corner. I had several baby hats to knit for different friends and family- and my creative energy went there.
And then before I knew it, the Christmas season was upon me and I was engaged in Christmas decorating.
You'd think that writing and painting a kitchen and decorating for Christmas would be different enough that there would be no conflict. But it seems in my case, creative energy is a finite resource.
Maybe I'll be able to get things pulled together and back to the writing after the Christmas season is over. Or maybe I just need to find a way to make it all work anyway.
