Being Me... ALL of me

This is a re-post from my old blog in 2010 but It's just as important today as it was then. And frankly, I need the reminder. I have found myself slipping back into the old pattern of losing myself in only one aspect of my personality and forgetting to nourish the others.



I AM- My Personal Collage


Here is the original blog entry:


I'm not just a mom, or just a writer, or just an artist. I'm all of those things and much more. But sometimes I get so caught up in being ONE of them that I forget to be the others. My life gets out of balance and I start to forget who I really am.

And that balance is really important. It makes me a better mom, a better writer, a better artist... a better everything.

If all I ever do is write, what will I write about? What will give me inspiration? You have to experience life to write about it.

If all I ever do are mom things, I'll start to feel overwhelmed and under appreciated. I'll become grouchy. And a grouchy me... well, that's not good for anyone.

But the balance, when I manage to keep it balanced, makes for a happier me. And that makes me a better mom, writer, artist, everything.

So I guess the question is... How am I going to keep my life balanced? How am I going to be ME... ALL of ME?

To be honest, I'm not completely sure. But the first step is to remind myself of who I am. All the different facets of my personality.

At a writing conference I attended, one of the presenters suggested making a character collage to help remind you of all the facets of your character's personality so they don't become flat cookie cutter characters. I figured if it would work with characters, maybe it'll work for me too.

Because let's face it, I feel like I've become a flat cookie cutter character lately. And who wants that? It makes for boring characters and it makes for a boring Kim too.

So I made a Kimber Collage. You can see it above. It has all the different facets of my personality included. Maybe even some that'll surprise you.

I'm going to hang that picture up near my computer as a reminder to myself to keep being me... ALL of me.



UPDATE: This picture never made up on my wall. My computer USB ports failed (ALL of them if you can believe that- what are the odds of that happening) and my printer will no longer work so it's never been printed. Hopefully, soon I'll be able to afford a new computer and can hang this up where I'll see it every day.

You can read the original entry/see the original comments HERE.