Pogo sticks and important things

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Last week I had the pleasure of being at an elementary school talent show. It was a genuine pleasure because I’m a mom and my 2 youngest children were 2 of the acts, but I’m also a blogger. Can you even imagine how many stories I could write about an elementary school talent show?! So many stories, not enough words.

But my favorite story needs only a few words: girl, pogo stick, flute. Yep, when they announced that act, I thought, “This is going to be a great morning.” Then the girl entered the stage with her pogo stick, her flute, AND her music stand, which she proceeded to set up just a few feet from her face, mere inches from where she would soon be pogoing and fluting, and I suddenly thought, “This is going to end badly.”

It could have ended badly, but it didn’t. The bold little flutist pulled off her impossible act, and I instantly turned to the woman sitting next to me and said, “That looks like my life.” She laughed, probably because she gets it and thought the same thing about her own life. Or maybe she just laughed because that’s how she responds when a stranger talks to her at an elementary school talent show – either way.

Many days I do feel like a pogo sticking flutist, especially that day. I had spent the morning pogoing around the kitchen, packing lunches while doing squats so I could get both done before the talent show. I got to the school early to grab a good seat, answering emails and opening a couple days’ worth of mail while waiting. I kissed my talented children goodbye and rushed (safely) to work to relieve the co-worker who had covered the morning for me. Getting my shift covered had been an act in itself – weeks of texting coworkers, luring them, trying to pied piper someone into covering a few hours, but you know what? I pulled off my semi-impossible acts, it just took some doubling up.

But that’s what it takes when life is a balancing act of important things. Just as those kids may already know, but will certainly find out, nurturing talent and creativity takes some doubling up, too. The day’s load of tasks rarely makes time for one’s creative side, but when we don’t make time, we lose that inner child version of ourselves, the one who has guts enough to get in front of their peers and give it their best shot, with no promise of applause over chuckles. It took me many years before I found the guts to expose my vulnerable little heart on a virtual page. I’m not sure if it’s guts so much as a desire to nurture my creative side, but it feels really good doing something just for the fun and the love of it. I need that important part of myself.

Maybe you have some talents and desires that need nurturing. Maybe it’s time you refined that pogosticking skill you had as a kid, but it just doesn’t seem important enough to be squeezed into your day, doesn’t seem worthy enough of mustering the guts. Let me encourage you – do it anyway. Maybe making time for your creative side is exactly the thing your busy life needs.

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