Nox, or Sleep

Nox, or Sleep
11/17/08 AEDM #16
Golden Fluid Acrylic

Nox is the Roman/Greek goddess of the night. She comes in the beginning, out of Chaos, and from her, a world of gods and goddesses are born.

Nothing will get done if you do not rest yourself. Rest is about renewal. Rest is when your body gets to reenergize, your mind gets to sort and make sense of all the information of the day, your soul gets to take a time out before starting anew the next day. This image serves to remind you that you need to get some sleep. That can be literal sleep, or it can be a step away from a project or problem you are grappling with. Perhaps what you really need is to let your subconscious work on your issues. Perhaps you need to step into the world of dreams and desires, of mystery and what once was chaos. Perhaps you need to trust that if you set a thing down and step away, it will still be there for you when you come back to it.

Just because night falls, does not mean we will never see the sun again. Night points to the necessary darkness in life, the necessary down turn, the necessary winter, the necessary shadow of the light. After night, the morning will come, I guarantee you. So let go, relax, and fall into the sleep that is calling.

If this image is in the reverse for you, it is time to wake up. The universe is sending you a message that you have been away from your life long enough. Time to shake off the sleepies and get yourself the metaphorical coffee. Allow the energy of the morning into your body and your goals. Take the steps out onto the clearly lit path of action and doing. You have gotten your eight hours, and now it is time for you to get going with your day.

I did not paint last night. Nope, not a bit. After putting the kids to bed, a took a rest on my own bed for a minute, and fell asleep for the whole night. That was 11 hours of sleep. I never got my down time to watch tv or to write, but I did get some sleep. It might mean I am catching something, but then maybe I am just burning out on how hard I am working and the fact that daylight savings time is getting my kids up an hour earlier than they did before.

Anyway. I slept a lot. I let the nightly clean up go. I did not paint. I did not unwind, I just sank into a deep sleep. And then, I opened my eyes to a three year old climbing up into my bed, yelling, "WA'E UP!" (That's Gspeak for wake up.)

So technically, I did not paint at all yesterday, but my day does not go until midnight to midnight. It goes from nap to nap. So when I swiftly painted this while the kids were watching Sesame Street, it counts for me as yesterday.

Nano: nada. (total wc still 34 thousand and change)
I read a book all day instead of working. I'm beginning to think I need to work, not everyday, but every week day. I think I need to have two days off a week, just like someone with a real job that gets a pay check.

In my search to have a balance between living and art, in my search to find a career in creativity and still take care of my kids, I am looking for sustainability, not a November crisis surge of writing/painting and then burn out. After I do nano, I still have to revise my novel/novels. And I still want to continue the work of being a professional artist. If I haven't managed to do this yet, it's because I am not looking at it quite as a job, but more as a personal challenge. I will get there. And I will do it the way I do everything.

Baby step by baby step, baby.