Friday, November 29, 2013

The Grass is NOT Always Greener, Unless You're a Sheep!


If you had followed my blog from a few years back or known my felted creations, then you may remember me pretty much disappearing to take a new job and move myself and my family across states for it from Missouri to Wisconsin. If you just found me online, then you can read more in this very old post about my adventure in 2010. Either way, the past few years offline have been full of tremendous growth for me of which I'm thankful. You'll find me occasionally wax poetic about it all on my blog here (I'll try to keep it to a mininum!) and share a little of what I learned during my journey.

One big conclusion that I came to is that the grass is not always greener, unless you're a sheep. Yes, I know, that statement needs a little explanation so if you can stand reading on a few paragraphs, then please bear with me as I spew out my midlife words of wisdom.

A little background...for the past three years, I was the Craft Editor for a large publishing company where I designed, created and wrote instructions/patterns for well over 300 diverse crafts across three major brands and over a half dozen publication. I also had various other responsibilities like social media contributions, e-newsletters, photo tutorials, some PR television work and a large list of other things that popped up weekly. It was a lot for one person to handle with no assistant, but to be fair, I know that everyone who works in a corporate atmosphere probably feels exactly the same way at some point regardless of their particular job title. Most companies today are doing "more with less" and employees are expected to step up to that task.

It would seem that I'm disgruntled about it all, but I'm really not, quite the opposite, I loved my job - the work duties, my coworkers, the brands and publications that I worked on daily. I actually miss it quite a lot and do my best not to dwell on that. And, yet, I chose to willingly leave to move back to my roots and return to be near my family in Missouri. There's a lot of reasons for this that really aren't blog worthy so I won't bore you to tears with the details, but the gist of it is that it was time to move on because I was too focused on doing and not on being

Every day for my husband, daughter and myself was busy from sunrise to sunset with work and other responsibilities. We were happy most of the time, but we were constantly doing. And, our jobs and everything else around us seemed to keep expecting us to just do more and more - keeping our heads down and grazing like sheep. Don't slow down, don't ask questions and certainly don't stop going. Just do more.

Very few people in your life will ever ask you to be more. Most of the time all anyone ever cares about is if you can do more for them, whether it is a job, family member, church or friend. Often times, it is up to you and you alone to decide to be more and take action. Most of the time that will mean rocking the boat and rattling some routines.

So that's just what my husband and I decided to do for ourselves and our family...be more. Stop doing so much and start being who we really needed and wanted to be. So we quit our jobs, packed our bags and headed back south to raise our daughter near both our families. Many people will not understand that mentality of change, but that's another big thing that I've learned about myself and my life, I really don't care. That's why it is called my life.

So what does it mean?
The grass is not always greener, unless you're a sheep!
I personally don't think there is a "greener" just many different shades of green in life. And, you and only you can decide which shade fits regardless of job, money, power, recognition, worldly success, etc., etc., etc.. You can also choose to be content being a sheep, and well, that's okay too if it fits you and your life circumstance. There is a time in life for keeping your head down and ambitiously grazing. I did that myself for a while and learned so much about what it meant to just do more and not necessarily be more (and the grass definitely looked "greener" or at least felt that way). But now, I'm choosing a different shade of green and hopefully focusing less on doing more and a lot more on being more.




3 comments:

  1. Nicely written blog.
    Good for you! Understand completely.
    I have been using your last blog to link to other sites. Am glad to see you blogging again. Will be checking in regularly.

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  2. Thank you Marilyn for the kind words. I'm so glad you'll be stopping by regularly!

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  3. Well said, and I totally get it! I'm sure you and your family will not regret it.. good for you!

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