Approximately two weeks ago Stacey and I made a big decision. Well, I guess it’s not that big. We decided to join a gym and we’re now proud members of L.A. Fitness in the Dulles Town Center. When I was growing up I played baseball and basketball all the time. I played baseball for my college team and very often played pick up basketball. I lifted weights most of my senior year. I was in pretty good shape.
After graduation, I moved to Washington, D.C. and continued being active. Eventually I took up cycling and even raced for a bit with a local team. Again, I was in pretty good shape. Since then, however, I haven’t been nearly as active as I would have liked. Lately, I have felt quite out of shape. The time came to look into joining gym.
Since joining the gym two weeks ago I have gone there 8 times (I missed 5 days due to the holidays in Kentucky). And I am loving it. Already I feel a bit better physically and mentally. Unfortunately, this all comes at a cost. I struggle with knowing that those 15 hours or so could have been spent in the studio. That’s not including the time to commute to and from the gym, or the exhausted nights recovering on the couch after a challenging workout. Ultimately I have lost a lot of studio time and I’m not thrilled with that.
I think there are certain times when life pulls an artist away from the studio. It’s a difficult decision, choosing something over art. But we make the decisions we feel we need to make when we need to make them. My belief is that although my time in the studio may be diminished, what time I do spend in the studio is of greater quality. I will feel better about myself and I’ll be able to work harder and with greater focus. I already feel a greater clarity about my work and I have some interesting things happening in the studio as we speak.
I recently re-read Anne Truitt’s “Daybook.” In it, she talks about how she had to prioritize many things above her work in the studio. I think the list included family, friends, employment, house chores and her garden. All of these came before the studio. Once her responsibilities were taken care of, she would spend what time and energy that remained in the studio. I think we can all agree that what came out of her studio was remarkable regardless of the time made available for its creation.
Fitness/health and art are not mutually exclusive. They are both required to make me the person I am and want to be. I will pursue both with determined passion and I look forward to seeing what comes from each. But from time to time, I will struggle with the choice of one over another at a specific point in time. I will remind myself that life is long and I have time to do it all.
After all, if Anne could do it, so can I.
I absolutely love Anne Truitt’s “Daybook.”
You know that was a captivatinggood article. I think I’ll write a blog post and link to it.