The Plan Is Not Going as I Expected

If I believed in New Year’s Resolutions, I would have had the least successful first week of the new year ever. In general I’m always thinking about spending more time exercising, reading, and pursuing creative projects. Doesn’t sound too taxing, does it?

Reading has been the easiest of these three things to accomplish. The television selection is total crap here, the internet is run by hamsters on a wheel (wait, we don’t have hamsters here; it must be run by geckos), and it takes Netflix a month to travel to my mailbox. Since reading takes so little energy, it’s the first activity I go for when there’s no glowing screen to keep me entranced.

The thing is, I need to do the exercising. I’m climbing a mountain in four weeks—Kilimanjaro—and I need the conditioning for it. I was doing well for about a month but this last week has been a disaster to my training. I did one hike and one run this week when my goal was to do one or the other for 7 days in a row in order to get the feel of how it will be to wake up every morning for the week-long trek. I keep having to start my count from scratch.

Creative pursuits. I write and sew and have a million ideas for craft projects. But I’m having trouble bringing those ideas to fruition. I sit down at my table to face fabrics and scissors and pencils and nothing happens. I turn on a yoga DVD (or worse, a “Dirty Sexy Money” episode from Netflix) or pick up a book instead. My plan for living here was that I’d sew handbags and bead jewelry and design t-shirts--produce inventory for two years. Then when we move back to the States I’ll have plenty to sell on Etsy or at craft shows or something. So many people would kill for the opportunity to just sit and create and not have to worry about the business end of things. Here I am wasting all that time. I keep telling myself there’s plenty of time to sew after I go running, over the weekend, after I get back from this or that trip. But six months have gone by and my output: One drawstring purse that I made in such a rush for a party that it fell apart.

Here's a thought: Maybe I’m not supposed to be a crafter right now. I spent several years ignoring running and reading for sewing, but maybe the pendulum is swinging back. I have to trust that somehow this will all work itself out. But what about my circumstances that provide the perfect opportunity for bulk creating?

This is a hell of a time for creativity block, but I'll be a smarty pants and fit into those pants nicely.

"Here" is Bujumbura, Burundi, where my husband's job sent us. My hobbies here include wondering if this milk really is pasteurized and not bothering with the mobile phone because the calls always get dropped. I write at Where in the World Am I?.