Officially recommended by the Comic Mummy Foundation as part of a balanced diet.
I think it’s pretty much impossible for a wife, mom and entrepreneur to have true balance. And to be honest, I’m not sure balance is what I am looking for. I love having my head so full of ideas and possibilities… trying to get as much accomplished as possible. I love deadlines and time lines and big DREAMS. – Kim Klassen, as told to Dana Barbieri
Seeing as ‘balance’ always seems to be touted as THE goal, this quote really made me think.
I mean, I recently have come to several realisations regarding the whole balance thing in my own life:
1) That my life is seasonal – I have months where it’s completely all about the kids, the family, etc. with just small glimpses of my career in the mix. Then I have others ( if I’m doing a residency or a festival, for instance) where it’s very much focused on the career stuff and I have to make other arrangements to take care of the domestic stuff. Which has led me to:
2 ) A long-term view on balance – that while each day, week or month might not be perfectly balanced, I trust that in the long-term i.e. over the course of a year, it will work itself out. I think. I’m kinda contradicting myself here though because I’ve also come to believe that:
3) Balance is a weird goal anyway. Given that even if we achieve it:
a) how do we know it? and
b) even if we do know it, almost the moment we think we’ve got it, it disappears. In other words, it’s a magical illusion. Like a rainbow, or a leprechaun or Johnny Depp, yes?
But back to the quote above. I kinda love that she’s throwing the whole balance thing to the curb like a Rikki Lake style deadbeat boyfriend, and instead just embracing the awesomeness of being overcrowded with imaginings, goals and dreams.
This speaks to me as I often curse myself for being so full of ideas (and other less pleasant things), rather than just being thankful. And joyful.
Even if this means that at times I might be unbalanced, at least there’s hope I might be gleefully so.