I rarely ask myself \u201cwhat are the things I love to do?\u201d I am far more focused on the things I feel \u201cresponsible for\u201d. <\/p>\n
Things like:
\n– doing a good job at my workplace
\n– taking care of my family or should I say \u201cmy household\u201d? (ie: cleaning up, doing laundry, making meals\/lunches, getting the kids ready for school, getting groceries, etc.)<\/p>\n
Between my workplace (which eats up over 45 hours a week) and all the things I feel \u201cresponsible for\u201d in my household, I don\u2019t perceive myself to having a lot of extra time after that. I do have extra time, but I\u2019ll spend it going on the internet \u2013 reading blogs\/emails\/news, or spending a little time to myself on the weekend \u2013 reading in the tub.<\/p>\n
Are these the things I really \u201clove\u201d to do? Some of them \u2013 like reading in the tub. But there are a lot of things I love to do that I just don\u2019t do because I feel that would be \u201cirresponsible\u201d \u2013 it would take away from my perceived \u201cresponsibilities\u201d.<\/p>\n
(let me interject here with a disclaimer \u2013 my husband does his fair share of the \u201chouse-work\u201d; what I\u2019m talking about it completely self-inflicted. My husband does not expect me to take on all these perceived responsibilities and he graciously tries to affirm me to actually do the things I love \u2013 what a wonderful man!)<\/p>\n
So what are the things I love to do?
\n– Taking pictures \u2013 I recently purchased a DSLR camera, got a beginner\u2019s book on photography and even took a beginner\u2019s photography workshop \u2013 however, I haven\u2019t really spend a lot of time \u201ctaking pictures\u201d
\n– Playing piano \u2013 this one is a little tricky because if my daughter is awake and I start to play the piano, she suddenly wants to play, too. That being said, I haven\u2019t been very deliberate about taking time to play just for the fun of it
\n– Reading a good (ie: fiction) book \u2013 I\u2019m not necessarily doing this myself but I am reading some of my favourite childhood books to my son and having a great time at it. The really fun part is getting to the end of a chapter with a \u201ccliff-hanger\u201d ending \u2013 my son is writhing in agony to know what happens next and I won\u2019t tell him even though I know exactly what happens next. It\u2019s like reliving the experience of reading the book for the first time again.
\n– Acting \u2013 a couple of years ago I had the opportunity to act in a Gateway play in Saskatoon. I absolutely loved it! I had acted throughout school and college (when I was in high school there was a time I wanted to be a professional actress). I\u2019m glad I was able to act in the Gateway play and my family really encouraged me to do it. I haven\u2019t auditioned for anything else since then. Maybe I should to some more auditioning\u2026
\n– Coloring \u2013 this may seem silly but I really enjoy coloring. My daughter loves to draw and color but I don\u2019t do much coloring with her.
\n– Dancing \u2013 I love dance. I never had an opportunity to take dance classes when I was growing up. I entered my daughter into ballet classes last year and this year I signed myself up for an Adult Ballet class and I\u2019m enjoying it.<\/p>\n
I saw a couple of friends I grew up with play in their band<\/a> this weekend \u2013 it looks like they loved playing together. I\u2019ve been thinking about that. It\u2019s important to do the things you love to do. \u201cThere is a time to work and a time to play\u201d.<\/p>\n Thanks to the encouragement of my husband I am starting to do some of the things I love to do. I just need to get past the burden of \u201cperceived responsibility\u201d in order to enjoy this life God has given me even more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I rarely ask myself \u201cwhat are the things I love to do?\u201d I am far more focused on the things I feel \u201cresponsible for\u201d. Things […] Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}