Follow Your Bliss...

"Bliss:
1. supreme happiness; utter joy or contentment: wedded bliss.
2. Theology. the joy of heaven.
3. heaven; paradise: the road to eternal bliss.
4. Archaic. a cause of great joy or happiness." (Dictionary.com)

When have you last felt bliss? Did you know bliss can also be a verb (blissed out)? I felt blissed out on Friday afternoon. I was home in the early afternoon, waiting for the furnace man to come and do the yearly cleaning. I had a nice roasted veggie sandwhich and then a hot cup of eggnog coffee for dessert (I realize that it's WAY past time to be drinking eggnog flavored coffee, but I love it too much to care).

I then spent some time running up and down the stairs between my creative room and my computer in the living room in my artistic endeavors. Scan. Run back upstairs. Cut and paste. Smooth out paper. Run back downstairs. Copy. Run back upstairs..."

I stopped and thought for a moment, as I sipped my hot coffee and looked out at the snow on the tree branches, "This is bliss. There is no where I would rather be right now, no one I'd rather be with than myself, nothing I would rather be doing than working on this creative project." I was filled to the brim with joy.

Even though I don't know where I'm going on this journey that is my life, I feel so, so grateful that I've added more creativity and passion into my life. There is still so much I want to do! So much I want to learn creatively, so many things I want to try, but I just feel so grateful and sure that I'm heading in the right direction. Not knowing where I will end up is unnerving...sometimes it's downright scary. But knowing that I'm going somewhere, that makes all the difference to me.

I want so much to make my living in a creative field, but I'm completely unsure which direction to go in. Graphic Design is very interesting to me; I like working with software and spending time alone working is quite pleasant most of the time. On the other hand, there is the helping side of me (the NF in my INFP/INFJ Myers-Briggs classification) that makes me feel like no work will be completely satisfying unless I can see that I'm helping a cause, doing something to make someone else's stay here a little better, be it a person or animal.

If I could have my dream job, what would it be? I'm still not sure, even after turning 30. But I know some things it would include: Creativity (obviously!), flexibility, problem solving, helping support a cause I believe in, fairly good income, the ability to work at home at least part-time, the ability to work alone most of the time, with positive interaction with others, autonomy, beauty all around, fun, work that I feel passionate about. Roll all those things up into a career and what do you have?

I'm not sure, but I'll let you know what I find out...