The title is in no way connected to “No Mercy” even though as soon as I typed it, the song started playing in my head.
I took a small break from life for a while and am sort of clawing my way back in. I was hoping to have some sort of profound realization while on break; something to make me feel okay about my complete lack of ideas and motivation. The only thing I discovered was that I need to take breaks from everything and everyone more often. That whole “taking care of yourself” thing.
Do you this? Do you take breaks from living, even if it’s only a few minutes? I’m curious about others’ life process and how they go about doing their thing.
At the moment, I’m exhausted. I can’t sleep and haven’t really been able to for several days. This would be what is commonly referred to as the “manic phase” (yes, I’m air-quoting and I suggest you do the same). The downsides for mine are: impulsivity, anger, forgetfulness, run-on/garbled speech, psychosis, sleeplessness, restlessness, and more things that end in “-ness”. Bonus is that I’m no longer having all of my downsides all the time and this greatly pleases me. Lets me know that my treatment is working and, well, WOOHOO to that! Truly, the biggest bonus of all is that my brains are overflowing with ideas. Because I am not quite steady enough to execute any of them, they are getting scribbled down in my notebook so once I chill out, I can get started with new work. I like looking forward to things.
I posted some drawings on Etsy. I’m still not sure how I feel about Etsy. Sometimes I wonder if it’s more of a craft thing than a drawing/painting thing. Anyway, I finally posted (after almost a year of having nothin’ on there) and now that that’s done, I feel slightly productive. If you’re curious, go to It Does Art on Etsy and see what monstrosities await.
This is on there and I like it (and if you ever tell anyone I said that, I’ll deny it):
It Does Art 
Your piece shown above follows the trend of “I haven’t seen a whole lot of your work lately and when I get a glimpse I see awesomeness.” Also, I am for you taking as much time as you could ever need, but obviously peeps be glad you are all chatty on FB. WORD (2010, of course).
Thank you, Pet. I’m glad you enjoy seeing the new things and approve. I trust your eye. 😉
I followed the link you posted on the Seattle craigslist site. It’s cool you worked on your Etsy–I finally posted something on Etsy this week myself after promising myself for months and months that I would. I find that the motivation to get stuff done comes in tiny bursts, and I have to do what I can when I feel the drive to do it. When I take breaks from life, I generally do book-reading marathons where I just read one book after another and don’t stop for much else besides a bite to eat. It sometimes is a relief to just think about the lives of fictional characters for a while instead of my own life.
Mandy, thank you for sharing your thoughts. And well done on your posting, too! I’m interested to see what you do, if you’d like to share. Oh, I know what you mean about the tiny bursts! Take advantage of them when you can, just as you said.
Book reading marathons are an ideal way to take a break. Getting lost in another “reality” can be an awesome salve to our own realities. 🙂
Thanks for your reply! Somehow I missed getting a notification that you’d replied to my comment. My Etsy site is here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/mandypoet. I just added a new zine to it but really need to add some collage stuff, etc. Sending you good wishes for the new year… 🙂
My turn to be seriously delayed on commenting (I moved!). Thank you for yours! I will be liking your Etsy shop – it’s fantastic. I like the zine.
I hope your new year has been wonderful. 🙂