Ordinary Things
from The Art of NOT Overcomplicating It
I started a mini series within my Substack called “The Art of Not Complicating It” to help me not overcomplicate my writing. I saw something about writing a weekly column about your life and thought, “hey, that’s a great idea”, and then impulsively did it. The following weeks came, and I would sit down to write about my life. I’d pour myself a cup of my favorite tea in my current favorite mug (the speckled glaze one with Dolly’s iconic quote: “pour yourself a cup of ambition”), and I’d find myself thinking, Well, that was a great idea… for somebody else.
Why is it that I’m so quick to think that good things can be for others but not for me? Why is it that I can find interest in someone else’s mundane life, but when it comes to my own mundane life, I doubt anyone will care? It’s so hard to admit these things. It’s hard to believe that I’m an interesting person if I’m not leading with a recent accomplishment, discovery, or creation. I’m sure I can’t be the only one who feels this way.
I have plenty of things going on in my life— most of them, at the moment, seemingly mundane. I’ve just started wedding planning. I spent all day yesterday on the phone making medical appointments, paying bills, and doing laundry. I just finished a great book with my book club. I’ve been working on some photos I made a very long time ago because the motivation to finish them finally came back to me. I’m walking more, exercising more, and eating more intentionally. I’m emailing and networking, trying to find my next job. I’m learning how to be the “stay-at-home” half of my relationship. I’m developing a few personal projects in a variety of mediums and spaces. And I don’t know how interesting any of these things are to people— or why I think anyone should care.
I wonder if it’s confusing to people that I don’t only focus this space on my creative work and my process. I wonder if it feels scattered, chaotic, or irrelevant. I guess, to me, it’s important for people to know that I’m more than just an artist. I’m also a daughter, a sister, a friend, a partner, a businesswoman, a girl. I am the sum of all these mundane things, and they naturally bleed over into and influence my creative work. I don’t think the artist part of me exists without them.
One of my wisest friends once told me, “All the people you look up to and admire are just people at the end of the day — we all put our pants on the same way.” I loved this because it reminds me that mundane is mundane is mundane, and we all have mundane days. And maybe acknowledging them with the same reverence is how I take some of the pressure off.
Maybe the art of not overcomplicating it is just pouring the cup of ambition, picking up the pen, and letting the ordinary be enough.
Maybe you’ll do the same.
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with love,
