Mission Critical
- Dakini Trading
- Feb 19
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 20
Halfway through February already, my goodness. I must admit, I've - not exactly been putting *off* writing this, so much as just not feeling inspired. Things in this country are ping-ponging between raging dumpster fire and holy hell, this is terrifying (and if you don't feel that way, I would suggest this is not the blog for you thanks all the same). Yet somehow life goes on.
I'm fortunate - privileged - enough not to be feeling any of the chaos directly, at least not yet. I'm not the kind to just settle back and enjoy it; I want to use my time to help others if I can. There are things I'd love to be doing if I had a proper shop already, and I've got Thoughts about how some of that might manifest on a smaller scale until I do (when not if!). But that's only so relevant to the Here and Now.
This has been a hard winter. I think part of it is that it's a *normal* winter for the area, something we haven't had for several years now. We've lost the knack. And of course I'm older and less physically fit; some of that is not due to not trying so much as it is age related. But it makes it harder that I can't shovel the front walk anymore, for instance.
Well. I don't want to write this as a litany of complaints, but it's hard not to. I've more that needs taking care of personally than I'm capable of getting to, and that's not taking into account all I feel I SHOULD be doing as a citizen. Finding the time and energy to write an update is challenging under these circumstances; finding something worth writing down even moreso.
But there are bright spots. My studio workroom is at least as functional as it was before the move - still a ways off from what I want it to be, but good enough I can mostly find things I'm looking for, and have room to work on projects (Not quite good enough to share photos yet tho - hopefully I'll be able to soon). That's important. I've got so much more I hope to get done down there tho. As soon as it's warm enough, I want to get the lounge area functional. I want to bring home my drafting table (in storage for how many years, now?) I want to be able to SEW. And I will, but it takes time to make it all happen.
Our living room is - still a work in progress, but almost to where someone could come over and I'd not be horrified. We desperately need a better sofa, and it would be nice to get rid of the powder blue wall to wall carpeting in there too. I've got a TV to mount on the wall, but that needs an assistant (which isn't as easy as it should be, given three adults live here). But it's close to being someplace I could sit of an evening. We haven't had that in years either, so long I've almost forgotten how to use a living room. I think it'll come back to me though.
It can be hard to spend time and energy on working on things like this when there's - well, the world - but also the Giant Art Collective, and oh yeah, working on my
shop. Shops, plural. And that's another area where good things are happening; at the beginning of this month, I had a day where I sold an item from each of my functional shops the *same day*! I'm starting to get more notice, and while sales aren't to the point where they are going to support me yet, they are happening.
I do feel like all the behind the scenes work I'm putting in is starting to show some results. I keep learning - I think my shirt designs are getting better, my processes for handling them are definitely better, and my mockups are also improving. I'm grateful not to have a hard and fast deadline for all this (or rather, the self-imposed deadline I do have is still a couple years away) which gives me the freedom to learn at a pace that works for me.
And I think that might be the moral of the story for this entry. I've always been one to look out for everybody else first, and if there's any left over at the end, well, I'll worry about me then. It's not easy trying to unlearn that, even as I understand the very real need to do so. And it ties directly in to what I ultimately am trying to do with Dakini Trading: being a safe haven of tranquility in a stressful and challenging world, and providing the touches that help others realize that vision in their own homes. In other words, I'm trying to practice what I preach, for the very necessary reason that if I don't, I may not be physically ABLE to carry out that mission. Yes, I have a mission statement. I should probably look at it more often than I do.
We've been given the opportunity (blessing or curse or possibly both) to live in an era where that tranquil oasis is truly vital to the well-being of body, mind, and spirit. There are days when getting there seems like pushing a boulder up a mountain with only a wooden ruler for leverage. But I've never let that daunt me before. I may write some more about this at the end of the month; at least I have some ideas what to say about it. If you've been with me this far or are just joining in, I appreciate you being here. You hang on in there, I'll hang on here. Right? Right. So long as that's sorted then. Until next time, I leave you, as always, in perfect love and faerie dust.
If you don't already, why not:
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