What a Woman Wants for Her 45th Birthday
An invitation to help me continue my work in the world as I make another revolution around the sun
My birthday is Sunday April 13th. Want to buy me a piece of birthday cake?
By which, I really mean another year of doing creative work….
I am grateful to have the life that I do …
a life in which I am able to use my knowledge, skills and passion to deepen global understanding about the complex relationship between art and health
through work that helps other creatives find ways to determine and achieve holistic success - emotional, mental, physical, financial, social, relational …
I am grateful for all of the things that have led me to be able to have this life.
I am grateful for the resources that made sure I am still here today to do this work when there were dark times in my life that I thought I might not be.
I am grateful for all of the love and friendship that have sustained me through the ups and downs of making a creative life.
I am grateful for the strength I’ve found within myself to keep believing and trying and finding a way to continue living in alignment with my beliefs even when doing so is hard.
And all I want for my 45th birthday is to have another year of being able to do this work.
The truth is that it’s hard to keep supporting myself, year in and year out, in a creative career. It’s hard to keep hustling and selling myself and pivoting and applying for grants and seeking solutions to make the work keep happening. It’s hard being a single woman supporting myself in a creative career, while navigating my own mental health issues, in an expensive city.
Sometimes I think about giving it up, about saying that after 30 years of full-time work, 20 of which have been full-time in this creative career, maybe I should just stop trying so hard. Maybe I should get a cushy office job (is there such a thing?) and collect a paycheck that provides me with paid vacation time and health insurance.
Maybe doing the work I’m meant to do in the world doesn’t matter …
Oh but it does. It does matter, even though sometimes it’s so hard to keep believing it.
So, I want to keep doing it.
And I can only keep doing it if I keep finding support for it. And so even though I’ve sick of asking for support and I feel like I’m being annoying when there are so many, many, many other things going on in the world that need your attention and energy and resources … I do still believe that the work I’m doing matters, so I’m going to ask for the help.
If you have ever benefitted from my work and/or have a reason to believe in the creative research and community-building that I do through Create Me Free, I would be humbled and honored and super grateful if you could contribute whatever amount feels doable for you as a birthday gift to support my 45th year. You can donate over at “Buy me a coffee” right here:
Last year’s essay:
And more …
Happy birthday!! 🎉
Happy Birthday!